The Dawn Angiosperms: Uncovering the Origin of Flowering Plants

253 Pages·2010·9.75 MB·English

by  Xin Wang (auth.)

Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 121
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D.Yuen,USA
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Xin Wang
The Dawn Angiosperms
Uncovering the Origin of Flowering Plants
123
Dr.XinWang
NanjingInstituteofGeologyandPalaeontology
ChineseAcademyofSciences
39BeijingDongRoad
Nanjing210008
and
FairylakeBotanicalGarden
160XianhuRoad
Shenzhen518004
People’sRepublicofChina
[email protected]
ISSN0930-0317
ISBN978-3-642-01160-3 e-ISBN978-3-642-01161-0
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-01161-0
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Preface
Angiospermsarethemostdiversifiedplantgroupintheworld,beingrepresentedby
ca300,000speciesinabout400families.LikeallofLife,includingourselves,they
havehadtheirownhistoryandgonethroughmanyevolutionarystagesbeforethey
arrived at their current forms. The origin of Angiospermae (flowering plants) has
been the subject of much dispute because this is a key event in the history of life,
andhasafar-reachinginfluenceonourunderstandingofrelationshipsamongseed
plantsasawholeaswellaswithintheangiosperms.Untilrecentlymostofpalaeob-
otanistsrecognizedangiospermsonlyfromtheCretaceousandyoungerstrata.This
contradictstheresultsofmolecularanalyses.
IhavebeenworkingonMesozoicfossilplantsforthepasttwodecades,during
which time I have studied a number of fossil plants. Some of these fossil plants
have been published as Jurassicangiosperms, and, unsurprisingly, many questions
anddoubtshavebeenraisedaboutthem.Thesequestionsneedtobeaddressedseri-
ouslyandjournalpapersdonotprovidesufficientspacetocompareandrelatethese
earlyangiosperms.Inthisbookthesepioneerangiospermsaredocumentedindetail,
sometimes with new specimens not studied before. Also, I propose a definition of
angiosperms that could be adopted in palaeobotany. My aim is to improve clarity
andobjectivityofjudgmentaboutwhatconstitutesafossilangiosperm.
In Chap. 1, a brief introductory overview of angiosperms is given. In Chap. 2,
some of the already suggested ancestors of angiosperms are noted. Chapter 3 dis-
cussesthevariousfeaturesscientistshaveusedtodefineangiosperms,andanindex
character for fossil angiosperms is selected. Chapter 4 gives a brief summary of
the geological and biological backgrounds of fossil plants to be elaborated upon
in later chapters. Chapters 5–7 document in detail several angiosperms or possi-
bleangiospermsfoundintheEarlyCretaceousandJurassicofnortheastChinaand
southGermany,andthesechaptersformthecoreofthebook.Chapter8,basedon
currentknowledge,raisesanewhypothesisonflowerformationanddiscussespossi-
bleoriginandhistoryofevolutionarydevelopmentforcarpelsandflowers.Chapter
9 summarizes the results as a whole and provides suggestions for future study in
relatedfields.
There are 362 pictures and drawings in 101 figures. These pictures represent
the fossil plants in a way more direct and objective than words, which more
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viii Preface
likely reflects my personal inclination in interpretation as well as wording. Total
530 references are cited. The readers can refer to these references for further
information.
It is expected that this book, like many others, will have certain controversial
aspects. The publishing of this book can only serve as a starting rather than a
concluding point for works on these fossils as well as the origin of angiosperms.
Everythinginthisbook,includingcriteria,definitions,interpretations,andconclu-
sions, is open to discussion. Readers are always welcome to interpret the data in
this book from their own perspectives. I hope the readers can feel free to send me
theiropinions.Ibelievethefuturestudyofearlyangiospermswillbenefitfromsuch
feedbackandinteraction.
Nanjing XinWang
January,2010
Acknowledgements
Mystudiesoftheplantfossilsdescribedinthisbookcanbedatedbacktotheearly
1990s, and some of the fossil collecting was done even before that time. During
thislongperiodIhavebenefittedfromtheconstantsupportfrommyadvisors,Drs.
Shuying Duan, Ye Chen, David L. Dilcher, and Zhiyan Zhou. Many colleagues,
including Drs. Shaolin Zheng, Jinzhong Cui, Shijun Wang, Baoyin Geng, Yong
Yang,andmyadvisorsco-authoredseveralpaperswithme.Manyothercolleagues
and friends have offered valuable support and constructive suggestions from var-
ious aspects, including Drs. Wu Zhang, Zhaoliang Xu, Jingeng Sha, Yongdong
Wang,ShuangxingGuo,QiangJi,JunWang,YiWang,YaosongXue,Chuanming
Zhou,DongRen,YuanWang,ShunqinWu,FangZheng,ShurenZhang,Weiming
Wang,JianguoLi,CuilingHe,ChunzhaoWang,ErjunZhuo,ZhiqinWang,Xiting
Cheng,KaiheDu,YinhouXiao,MinFeng,JieWen,ZhiDu,XuejianYang,Zhaoyi
Meng, Xin Xu, Song Ge, Liangqian Li, Hongzhi Kong, Qiang Zhang, Gang Li,
Haichun Zhang, Qin Leng, Yibo Luo, Hongxia Liu, Yan Liang, Gongle Shi, Yan
Fang,HongtaoCai,GangHan,ShikuanLiang,YanChen,PeterStevens,DennisW.
Stevenson,MichaelFrohlich,WalterJudd,KevinNixon,JamesDoyle,PeterCrane,
Michael Krings, Stefan Schmeiβner, Günter Dütsch, Martin Kirchner, Johanna
H.A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, Steve McLoughlin, Thomas N. Taylor, Nora
Dotzler, Larry Hufford, Meizhen Cao, Zhenyu Li, Jianan Zhu, Catarina Rydin,
StevenManchester,FrédéricJacques,andMichaelHeads.Drs.DouglasMcKinnon,
Williams Rose, and Margaret Joyner have helped with English in publications.
Dr. Christopher Hill has gone through the whole book and given constructive and
detailedsuggestions.Iwishtoextendmycordialthankstoallofthem.
TheresearchissupportedbytheNationalNaturalScienceFoundationofChina
Programs (Nos. 40772006, J0630967, and 40632010), Ministry of Science and
Technology, PRC (2006FY120400), the State Key Laboratory of Systematic and
Evolutionary Botany at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
theScientificResearchFoundationforReturnedOverseasChineseScholars,State
Education Ministry, National Platform for Sharing Resources of Fossils and
Minerals.ThisworkisacontributiontoUNESCO-IUGSInternationalGeoscience
ProgrammeIGCP506.
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