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Science 16 May 1986:
Vol. 232. no. 4752, pp. 852 - 854
DOI: 10.1126/science.232.4752.852
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Articles

Lower Cretaceous Angiosperm Flowers: Fossil Evidence on Early Radiation of Dicotyledons

PETER R. CRANE 1, ELSE MARIE FRIIS 2, and KAJ RAUNSGAARD PEDERSEN 2

1 Department of Geology, Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605.
2 Departnent of Geology, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

Three-dimensionally preserved unisexual angiosperm flowers and inflorescences have been recovered from the Lower Cretaceous Patapsco Formation (Potomac Group) of eastern North America, in sediments palynologically dated as late Albian, approximately 100 million years old. In situ tricolpate pollen shows that the flowers were produced by some of the earliest higher (nonmagnoliid) dicotyledons, and the morphology of pollen, flowers, and inflorescences indicates a close relation to extant Platanaceae. Combined with architectural and cuticular features of associated leaves these floral remains suggest that Platanus-like plants with unisexual, probably insect-pollinated flowers were an important element in the mid-Cretaceous diversification of dicotyledonous flowering plants.

Submitted on November 18, 1985
Accepted on March 4, 1986


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Early steps of angiosperm pollinator coevolution.
S. Hu, D. L. Dilcher, D. M. Jarzen, and D. Winship Taylor (2008)
PNAS 105, 240-245
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