A whole-plant monocot from the Lower Cretaceous |
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| Authors: | Zhong-Jian Liu Li-Jun Chen Xin Wang |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration for Orchid Conservation and Utilization at College of Landscape Architecture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350001, China;2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Orchid Conservation and Utilization, National Orchid Conservation Center of China and Orchid Conservation & Research Center of Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518114, China;3. State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China |
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| Abstract: | The Yixian Formation (the Lower Cretaceous) of China is world famous for its fossils of early angiosperms. Despite their great diversity, few of these fossils are preserved as whole plants, making our understanding of early angiosperms incomplete. Here, we report a fossil angiosperm, Sinoherba ningchengensis n. gen. n. sp. (Sinoherbaceae n. fam.), from the Yixian Formation of China. The fossil is of a whole plant, including physically connected root with fibrous rootlets, a stem with branches and nodes, leaves with parallel-reticulate veins, and a panicle of female flowers with an ovary surrounded by perianth. Morphological and phylogenetic analyses reveal that Sinoherba is an herbaceous monocot. This fossil underscores the great diversity of angiosperms in the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation and an earlier, pre-Cretaceous origin of angiosperms. |
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