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Science 9 February 1990:
Vol. 247. no. 4943, pp. 702 - 704
DOI: 10.1126/science.247.4943.702
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Articles

An Aptian Plant with Attached Leaves and Flowers: Implications for Angiosperm Origin

David Winship Taylor 1 and Leo J. Hickey 2

1 Department of Biology, Yale University, P.O. Box 6666, New Haven, CT 06520
2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520

Recent phylogenetic studies and fossil finds support a new view of the ancestral angiosperm. A diminutive fossil angiosperm from the Aptian of Australia has attached leaves, with intermediate pinnate-palmate, low-rank venation, and lateral axes bearing pistillate organs subtended by bracts and bracteoles that are the oldest direct evidence of flowers. A variety of data suggests a similar morphology for the ancestral angiosperm. This hypothesis explains similarities between rhizomatous to herbaceous Magnoliidae and basal monocots, scarcity of early agniosperm wood, and lack of recognition of earlier remains.


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