Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) Angiosperm Flowers: Structure, Systematics and Phylogenetic/Evolutionary Significance

开花植物（被子植物）是当今地球上经济上最重要、生态上最多样、物种最丰富的植物。然而，我们对这一重要群体的起源和多样化的早期历史的理解受到相对较差的化石记录的阻碍，特别是很少有化石花，这是鉴定的最佳特征来源。之前的研究，博士。Crepet和Nixon在新泽西州北部早白垩纪（Turonian）地区发现了极为丰富的被子植物生殖结构组合，这可能是被子植物遗骸最丰富的沉积物。到目前为止，已经发现了100多个分类群。这些遗址的年代（90 MYBP）使它们处于主要被子植物辐射的早期历史，并提供了发现其他不寻常的和在系统发育上具有重要意义的灭绝形式的潜力。这些化石已经提供了一系列令人惊叹的花卉创新，并且是最古老的有记载的许多特征的例子，如共感的，木兰状的花托杯，明显的产蜜雄蕊，各种形式的雄蕊和花药修饰，以及粘丝。事实上，这些高度适应的特征与丰富的昆虫动物群在同一沉积物中表现出来，这为推断授粉生物学模式提供了一个不寻常的机会，因为这种关系可能在开花植物的成功中具有重要意义。由于保存的质量和细节，这些化石可以被置于系统发育的角度，使用分支分析来选择与现代开花植物类群关系的假设。分析还将用于测试不同的、分离的器官的化石重建。此外，这些研究将为进化理论的各个方面提供测试案例，例如缺失数据对分析的影响和化石马赛克的意义（所谓的缺失环节）。将使用扫描和透射电子显微镜技术，这项工作将包括大量的策展和数据库工作。该项目将提供大量独特的数据，这些数据将与许多其他科学家相关，特别是被子植物系统学家和授粉生物学家。这些分析将使我们更接近于理解被子植物的关系、早期的多样化和成功。

9726824 Crepet Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) angiosperm flowers: structure, systematics and phylogenetic/evolutionary significance The flowering plants (angiosperms) are the most economically important, ecologically diverse, and species rich plants on Earth today. However, our understanding of the origins and early history of diversification of this important group has been hampered by a relatively poor fossil record and, especially, few fossilized flowers, the source of the best characters for identification. Previous studies by Drs. Crepet and Nixon uncovered an extraordinarily rich assemblage of angiosperm reproductive structures from early Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) localities in northern New Jersey, which may be the richest deposits of angiosperm floral remains. Over 100 taxa have been discovered to date. The age of the sites (90 MYBP) places them in the early history of major angiosperm radiations, and offers the potential to discover additional unusual and phylogenetically significant extinct forms. Already these fossils provide a stunning array of floral innovations and are the oldest documented examples of numerous features such as sympetaly, magnoliid receptacular cups, apparent nectar-producing staminodia, various forms of stamen and anther modifications, and viscin threads. The fact that these highly adaptive characters are represented in the same deposits as a rich insect fauna presents an unusual opportunity to infer modes pollination biology at a time when such relationships might have been significant in flowering plant success. Because of the quality and detail of preservation, these fossils can be placed into phylogenetic perspective with the use cladistic analyses to select among hypotheses of relationships to modern flowering plant groups. Analysis also will be used to test fossil reconstructions of disparate, unattached organs. In addition, these studies will provide test cases for various aspects of cladistic theory such as the effect of missing data on an alyses and the significance of fossil mosaics (so-called missing links). The techniques of scanning and transmission electron microscopy will be used, and the work will include and a significant amount of curation and databasing effort. The project will provide a large amount of unique data that will be relevant to many other scientists including, particularly, angiosperm systematists and pollination biologists. The analyses should move us one step closer to understanding angiosperm relationships, early diversification, and success.