Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 3 April 1998:
Vol. 280. no. 5360, pp. 85 - 88
DOI: 10.1126/science.280.5360.85
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Flower-Associated Brachycera Flies as Fossil Evidence for Jurassic Angiosperm Origins

Dong Ren

Pollinating insects played a decisive role in the origin and early evolution of the angiosperms. Pollinating orthorrhaphous Brachycera fossils (short-horned flies) collected from Late Jurassic rocks in Liaoning Province of northeast China provide evidence for a pre-Cretaceous origin of angiosperms. Functional morphology and comparison with modern confamilial taxa show that the orthorrhaphous Brachycera were some of the most ancient pollinators. These data thus imply that angiosperms originated during the Late Jurassic and were represented by at least two floral types.

National Geological Museum of China, Xisi, Beijing 100034, China.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Evolution of Animal Pollination.
J. Ollerton and E. Coulthard (2009)
Science 326, 808-809
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Probable Pollination Mode Before Angiosperms: Eurasian, Long-Proboscid Scorpionflies.
D. Ren, C. C. Labandeira, J. A. Santiago-Blay, A. Rasnitsyn, C. Shih, A. Bashkuev, M. A. V. Logan, C. L. Hotton, and D. Dilcher (2009)
Science 326, 840-847
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Pollination biology of basal angiosperms (ANITA grade).
L. B. Thien, P. Bernhardt, M. S. Devall, Z.-d. Chen, Y.-b. Luo, J.-H. Fan, L.-C. Yuan, and J. H. Williams (2009)
Am. J. Botany 96, 166-182
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A NEMESTRINID FLY (INSECTA: DIPTERA: NEMESTRINIDAE: CF. HIRMONEURA) FROM THE EOCENE MESSEL PIT (GERMANY).
S. WEDMANN (2007)
Journal of Paleontology 81, 1114-1117
   Full Text »    PDF »
The Pollination of Trimenia moorei (Trimeniaceae): Floral Volatiles, Insect/Wind Pollen Vectors and Stigmatic Self-incompatibility in a Basal Angiosperm.
P. BERNHARDT, T. SAGE, P. WESTON, H. AZUMA, M. LAM, L. B. THIEN, and J. BRUHL (2003)
Ann. Bot. 92, 445-458
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)