Taiyuanostachya: An Abominable Angiosperm from the Early Permian of China

Abstract

Although angiosperms are can be clearly and strictly defined by their enclosed ovules, how old angiosperms are remains elusive. To solve this problem, the only reliable way is digging fossils. The currently widely accepted age for angiosperms is the Early Cretaceous, although this conclusion is facing increasing challenges pre-Cretaceous fossil evidence of angiosperms as well as molecular clocks. Here we report the outcome of our investigation on a Palaeozoic fossil plant, Taiyuanostachya gen. nov. Unlike previously thought, the fossil plant has both enclosed ovules and enclosed seeds. Since enclosed seeds are a feature characteristic of angiosperms, and enclosed ovules are idiosyncratic of angiosperms, the occurrence of both these features in Taiyuanostachya indicates that angiosperms, the single most diversified plant group on the Earth, may well have occurred in the Palaeozoic, and the origination of angiosperm appears to be much more complicated than assumed previously. Such a conclusion is astonishing for many but favors some molecular dating done decades ago.

Unique Jurassic Fruits Shed a New Light on the Nature of Carpels

“…We cannot know the truth until we calm down and study fossils carefully. Actually, there have been enough studies suggestive of pre-Cretaceous angiosperms [3,19,[26][27][28]33,34,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57].…”