Affiliation:
1. Blue Miracle Museum Science Research Studio, Guangzhou 510000, China
2. State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China
Abstract
The Yixian Formation (Lower Cretaceous) in China is famous worldwide for its fossils of early angiosperms, but there has been only one record of flower buds (Archaebuda lingyuanensis) hitherto, in which only the surface of the flower bud was documented while no internal details were known. Such a partial knowledge of flower buds hinders our understanding of the evolution of flowers, and this knowledge lacuna needs to be filled. Our new specimen was collected from an outcrop of the Yixian Formation (Barremian–Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) near Dawangzhangzi, Lingyuan, Liaoning, China. Our observations reveal a new fossil flower bud, Archaebuda cretaceae sp. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous of China. This new record of Archaebuda in the Yixian Formation not only confirms the truthful existence of the expected gynoecium (plus possible androecium) in a flower bud but also underscores the occurrence of typical flowers in the Early Cretaceous. This new information adds first-hand data to flower sexuality, pollination, and evolution.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Reference51 articles.
1. On the origin of angiosperms;Arber;J. Linn. Soc. Lond. Bot.,1907
2. The Caytoniales, a new group of angiospermous plants from the Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire;Thomas;Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond.,1925
3. A theory of angiosperm evolution;Axelord;Evolution,1952
4. From ovule to ovary: A contribution to the phylogeny of the megasporangium;Meeuse;Acta Biotheor.,1963
5. The origin of flowers;Melville;New Sci.,1964