Ancient Bisexual Flowers
- 4 May 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 224 (4648), 511-513
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.224.4648.511
Abstract
Fossil flowers discovered in 94-million-year-old clays of the Dakota Formation in Nebraska are among the earliest known demonstrably bisexual flowers. The flowers are of medium size and have pentamerous whorls of clearly differentiated floral parts, petals alternate with the sepals, short stamens are borne opposite the petals, the carpels are fused, and a receptacular disk is present. The pollen is small and tricolporate. These flowers appear to be well adapted to insect pollination. The numerous floral features and pollen characters provide sufficient diagnostic data to assess its systematic position. No extant order accommodates the features of this flower and it shares some features of various extant orders. The classification of flowering plants and our understanding of their evolution must be influenced by the fossilized remains of ancient flowers.This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Investigations of Tertiary Angiosperms: A New Flora Including Eomimosoidea plumosa from the Oligocene of Eastern TexasAmerican Journal of Botany, 1980
- A revised system of classification of the angiospermsBotanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 1980
- Early angiosperm reproduction: An introductory reportReview of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 1979
- Some aspects of the pollination biology of middle eocene angiospermsReview of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 1979
- Investigations of angiosperms from the Eocene of North America: An aroid inflorescenceReview of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 1978
- Investigations of Angiosperms from the Eocene of North America: A Mimosoid InflorescenceAmerican Journal of Botany, 1977
- Investigations of Angiosperms from the Eocene of North America: A Catkin with Juglandaceous AffinitiesAmerican Journal of Botany, 1975
- Mesozoic plants and the problem of angiosperm ancestryLethaia, 1973
- Wind Pollination in the Angiosperms: Evolutionary and Environmental ConsiderationsEvolution, 1969
- The Phylogenetic Taxonomy of Flowering PlantsAnnals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1915