A Novel Early Cretaceous Flower and Its Implications on Flower Derivation

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Many people are fascinated by beautiful flowers. Botanists have been intensively studying flowers to decipher their history. Various hypotheses have been advanced to account for the evolution of flowers. Unfortunately, most hypotheses are based on the understanding of modern flowers. Magnolia and related plants were once thought to bear the greatest resemblance to ancestral flowers. Naturally, botanists have been frequently surprised by new finds in the past century. A new flower named Lingyuananthus from the Early Cretaceous (about 125 million years ago) in China is the latest surprise for botanists. Distinct from all previously reported fossil flowers of similar ages, Lingyuananthus has an inferior ovary, syncarpy, and hypanthium. All three features were thought to be highly derived in angiosperms. Considering its Early Cretaceous age (the currently widely accepted earliest age of angiosperms and flowers), Lingyuananthus is a black swan that illustrates how astray botanists may have gone previously. Unable to account for the fossil flower diversity in the Early Cretaceous, botanical theories face a crisis. Among existing hypotheses, Zimmermann’s hypothesis, a long-time unfavored hypothesis, stands out like a black swan: it provides a better explanation for the origin and evolution of Lingyuananthus. ABSTRACT: Background: The origin and early evolution of angiosperms, by far the most important plant group for human beings, are questions demanding answers, mainly due to a lack of related fossils. The Yixian Formation (Lower Cretaceous) is famous for its fossils of early angiosperms, and several Early Cretaceous angiosperms with apocarpous gynoecia have been documented. However, a hypanthium and an inferior ovary are lacking in these fossil angiosperms. Methods: The specimen was collected from the outcrop of the Yixian Formation in Dawangzhangzi in the suburb of Lingyuan, Liaoning, China. The specimen was photographed using a Nikon D200 digital camera, and its details were photographed using a Nikon SMZ1500 stereomicroscope and a MAIA3 TESCAN SEM. Results: A fossil angiosperm, Lingyuananthus inexpectus gen. et sp. nov, is reported from the Lower Cretaceous of China. Differing from those documented previously, Lingyuananthus has a hypanthium, an inferior ovary, and ovules inside its ovary. Such a character assemblage indicates its angiospermous affinity, although not expected by any existing leading angiosperm evolutionary theory. Conclusions: New fossil material with a unique character assemblage falls beyond the expectation of the currently widely accepted theories of angiosperm evolution. Together with independently documented fossils of early angiosperms, Lingyuananthus suggests that at least some early angiosperms’ flowers can be derived in a way that has been ignored previously.