Diversity in obscurity: fossil flowers and the early history of angiosperms
Diversity in obscurity: fossil flowers and the early history of angiosperms
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DOI：
10.1098/rstb.2009.0227
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发表时间：
2010-02-12
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
Crane, Peter R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Friis, Else Marie;Pedersen, Kaj Raunsgaard;Crane, Peter R.
19世纪下半叶，白垩纪植物化石丰富组合的开创性发现，使人们对被子植物在地质记录中的首次出现产生了极大的兴趣。达尔文将被子植物的“快速发展”称为“令人憎恶的谜团”的著名评论，可以追溯到这个时代。达尔文和他的同代人对白垩纪晚期植物群中相对较晚、似乎突然和地理上广泛出现的现代被子植物感到困惑。如今，被子植物的早期多样化似乎没有那么快了。被子植物明显存在于早白垩世，在20-30Myr达到一些中白垩世植物群所反映的生态优势度之前，被子植物的叶片和花粉在这段时间内表现出不断增加的多样性和复杂性的明显格局。早期被子植物化石花显示出类似的有序多样性，并提供了对早白垩世以来被子植物不断变化的生殖生物学和系统发育多样性的详细见解。此外，新发现的化石花表明，在化石记录中已知的最早的被子植物中，存在着相当大的、以前未被认识到的神秘多样性。今天具有草本或灌木习性的血统得到了很好的代表。在早期被子植物化石组合中很难辨认的单子叶植物，在许多早白垩世生态系统中也是多样化和突出的。
In the second half of the nineteenth century, pioneering discoveries of rich assemblages of fossil plants from the Cretaceous resulted in considerable interest in the first appearance of angiosperms in the geological record. Darwin's famous comment, which labelled the 'rapid development' of angiosperms an 'abominable mystery', dates from this time. Darwin and his contemporaries were puzzled by the relatively late, seemingly sudden and geographically widespread appearance of modern-looking angiosperms in Late Cretaceous floras. Today, the early diversification of angiosperms seems much less 'rapid'. Angiosperms were clearly present in the Early Cretaceous, 20-30 Myr before they attained the level of ecological dominance reflected in some mid-Cretaceous floras, and angiosperm leaves and pollen show a distinct pattern of steadily increasing diversity and complexity through this interval. Early angiosperm fossil flowers show a similar orderly diversification and also provide detailed insights into the changing reproductive biology and phylogenetic diversity of angiosperms from the Early Cretaceous. In addition, newly discovered fossil flowers indicate considerable, previously unrecognized, cryptic diversity among the earliest angiosperms known from the fossil record. Lineages that today have an herbaceous or shrubby habit were well represented. Monocotyledons, which have previously been difficult to recognize among assemblages of early fossil angiosperms, were also diverse and prominent in many Early Cretaceous ecosystems.