References

Journal of Micropalaeontology

J. Micropalaeontol.

2041-4978

GSL Publishing

Göttingen, Germany

10.1144/jm.23.2.97

A boreal early cradle of Angiosperms? Angiosperm-like pollen from the Middle Triassic of the Barents Sea (Norway)

Hochuli

Peter A.

⁰ Feist-Burkhardt

Susanne

Paläontologisches Institut und Museum Universität Zürich, Karl-Schmid-Str. 4, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland (e-mail: )

Palaeontology Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK (e-mail: )

01 11 2004

23 2 97 104

2004

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This article is available from https://jm.copernicus.org/articles/23/97/2004/jm-23-97-2004.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://jm.copernicus.org/articles/23/97/2004/jm-23-97-2004.pdf

The origin of flowering plants is still a matter of dispute. Several lines of evidence suggest that their origin may go back to the Triassic. This paper reports on pollen grains with angiosperm-like morphologies from marine Middle Triassic sediments of the Boreal Realm (Norwegian Arctic, Barents Sea area). The morphology of these pollen grains is comparable to forms recorded from the Early Cretaceous, which are generally attributed to angiosperms. The new finds of angiosperm-like pollen are the earliest in the fossil record so far and show an astonishing high diversity. In contrast to other early records, they come from high palaeolatitudes with an inferred warm-temperate climate. The new finds suggest the presence of the first angiosperms during the Middle Triassic (242–227 Ma) or, alternatively, provide evidence for an as-yet unknown group of gymnosperms, possibly an extinct sister group of the flowering plants.

References 1

G. J., Brenner: Evidence for the earliest stage of angiosperm pollen evolution: A paleoequatorial section from Israel<italic>In</italic>: (Eds), Flowering Plant Origin, Evolution and PhylogenyChapman & Hall, New York, 91–115., 1996.

B., Cornet: The reproductive structures and leaf venation of a Late Triassic angiosperm, <italic>Sanmiguelia lewisii</italic>, Evolutionary Theory, 7, 231-309, 1986.

B., Cornet: Late Triassic angiosperm-like pollen from the Richmond rift basin of Virginia, U.S.A, Palaeontographica, Abteilung B, 213, 37-87, 1989.

P. R., Crane: Phylogenetic analysis of seed plants and the origin of angiosperms, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 72, 716-793, 1985.

P. R., Crane and S., Lidgard: Angiosperm diversification and paleolatitudinal gradients in Cretaceous floristic diversity, Science, 246, 675-678, 1989.

P. R., Crane, E. M., Friis and K. R., Pedersen: The origin and early diversification of angiosperms, Nature, 374, 27-33, 1995.

D. L., Dilcher: Paleobotany: some aspects of non-flowering and flowering plant evolution, Taxon, 50, 697-711, 2001.

J. A., Doyle: Origin of angiosperms, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 9, 365-392, 1978.

J. A., Doyle and C. L., Hotton: Diversification of early angiosperm pollen in a cladistic context<italic>In</italic>: (Eds), Pollen and Spores, Patterns of DiversificationSystematics Association, Special Volume, 44Clarendon Press, Oxford, 169–195., 1991.

J. A., Doyle, S., Jardiné and A., Doerenkamp: <italic>Afropollis</italic>, a new genus of early angiosperm pollen, with notes on the Cretaceous palynostratigraphy and paleoenvironments of Northern Gondwana, Bulletin des Centres de Recherches Exploration-Production Elf-Aquitaine, 6, 39-117, 1982.

S., Feist-Burkhardt and J., Pross: Morphological analysis and description of Middle Jurassic dinoflagellate cyst marker species using confocal laser scanning microscopy, digital optical microscopy, and conventional light microscopy, Bulletin du Centre de Recherches Elf Exploration Production, [1998], 22, 103-145, 1999.

E. M., Friis, K. R., Pedersen and P. R., Crane: Early angiosperm diversification: the diversity of pollen associated with angiosperm reproductive structures in Early Cretaceous floras from Portugal, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 86, 259-296, 1999.

E. M., Friis, K. R., Pedersen and P. R., Crane: Reproductive structure and organization of basal angiosperms from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian or Aptian) of Western Portugal, International Journal of Plant Sciences, 161, S169-S182, 2000.

E. M., Friis, K. R., Pedersen and P. R., Crane: Fossil evidence of water lilies (Nymphaeales) in the Early Cretaceous, Nature, 410, 357-360, 2001.

P. A., Hochuli, J. P., Colin and J. O., Vigran: Triassic biostratigraphy of the Barents Sea area<italic>In</italic>: (Ed.), Correlation in Hydrocarbon ExplorationGraham & Trotman, London, 131–153., 1989.

N. F., Hughes: The Enigma of Angiosperm OriginsCambridge University Press, Cambridge, 303pp., 1994.

P., Kenrick: The family tree flowers, Nature, 402, 358-359, 1999.

M. H., Kurmann and M. S., Zavada: Pollen morphological diversity in extant and fossil gymnosperms<italic>In</italic>: (Eds), Ultrastructure of Fossil Spores and PollenRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 123–137., 1994.

C. V., Looy, W. A., Brugman, D. L., Dilcher and H., Visscher: The delayed resurgence of equatorial forests after the Permian–Triassic ecological crisis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 96, 13857-13862, 1999.

J. M., Moldowan and S. R., Jacobson: Chemical signals for early evolution of major taxa: biosignatures and taxon-specific biomarkers, International Geology Review, 42, 805-812, 2000.

A., Mørk and G., Elvebakk: Lithological description of subcropping Lower and Middle Triassic rocks from Svalis Dome, Barents Sea, Polar Research, 18, 83-104, 1999.

K. J., Niklas, B., Tiffney and A. H., Knoll: Patterns in vascular land plant diversification, Nature, 303, 614-616, 1983.

J. M., Osborn and T. N., Taylor: Comparative ultrastructure of fossil gymnosperm pollen and its phylogenetic implications<italic>In</italic>: (Eds), Ultrastructure of Fossil Spores and PollenRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 99–121., 1994.

S. A. J., Pocock and G., Vasanthy: <italic>Cornetipollis reticulata</italic>, a new pollen with angiospermid features from the upper Triassic (Carnian) sediments of Arizona (U.S.A.), with notes on <italic>Equisetosporites</italic>, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 55, 337-356, 1988.

Y.-L., Qiu, J., Lee and F., Bernasconi-Quadroni: The earliest angiosperms: evidence from mitochondrial, plastid and nuclear genomes, Nature, 402, 404-407, 1999.

M. J., Sanderson and J. A., Doyle: Sources of error and confidence intervals in estimating the age of the angiosperms from rbcL and 18S rDNA data, American Journal of Botany, 88, 1499-1516, 2001.

P. S., Soltis, D. E., Soltis and M. W., Chase: Angiosperm phylogeny inferred from multiple genes: a research tool for comparative biology, Nature, 402, 402-404, 1999.

G., Sun and D. L., Dilcher: Early angiosperms from the Lower Cretaceous of Jixi, eastern Heilongjiang, China, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 121, 91-112, 2002.

G., Sun, D. L., Dilcher, S., Zheng and Z., Zhou: In search of the first flower: A Jurassic angiosperm, <italic>Archaefructus</italic>, from Northeast China, Science, 282, 1692-1695, 1998.

G., Sun, Q., Ji, D. L., Dilcher, S., Zheng, K. C., Nixon and X., Wang: Archaefructaceae, a new basal angiosperm family, Science, 296, 899-904, 2002.

C. C., Swisher, Y.-Q., Wang, X.-L., Wang, X., Xu and Y., Wang: Cretaceous age for the feathered dinosaurs of Liaoning, China, Nature, 400, 58-61, 1999.

A., Traverse: PaleopalynologyUnwin Hyman Ltd, London, Boston, 600pp., 1988.

J. O., Vigran, G., Mangerud, A., Mørk, T., Bugge and W., Weitschat: Biostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy of the Lower and Middle Triassic deposits from the Svalis Dome, Central Barents Sea, Norway, Palynology, 22, 89-141, 1998.

N., Wikström, V., Savolainen and M. W., Chase: Evolution of the angiosperms: calibrating the family tree, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 268, 2211-2220, 2001.

Z., Zhou, P. M., Barrett and J., Hiltons: An exceptionally preserved Lower Cretaceous ecosystem, Science, 421, 807-814, 2003.