The first flower in Northwest China: Early Cretaceous "willow leaf Gansu fruit"

The first flower in Northwest China: Early Cretaceous "willow leaf Gansu fruit"

The first flower in the northwest: Early Cretaceous "willow leaf Gansu fruit" The first flower in Northwest China: Early Cretaceous "willow leaf Gansu fruit"

"Annoying mystery"-Darwin described the origin and evolution of angiosperms (flowering plants) in this way
.

To this day, we still haven't completely solved the mystery, and we still don't know how this colorful and blooming earth evolved

Recently, Associate Professor Du Baoxia and Professor Sun Bainian of Lanzhou University discovered a perfectly preserved angiosperm fossil in the Late Early Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation in the Jiuquan Basin, and named it Gansufructus saligna, which is currently in Northwest China.

The earliest angiosperm fossil record is also the only angiosperm fossil report in the Early Cretaceous in Northwest China.

The fossil specimen of Gansufructus saligna (Gansufructus saligna) is preserved in the gray-green mudstone in the upper part of the Zhonggou Formation.
What is commendable is that the plant is preserved intact.
Except for the underground part, the stem, leaves and fruit sequence of the plant are almost completely preserved on the fossil.
Angiosperm morphology research provides valuable materials
.

From the morphological point of view, the willow-leaf gansu fruit plants are erect, with three to four branches, intergrowth of branches and leaves, leaves are similar to willow leaves, leaf veins are weak, low-order veins, main veins are obvious, secondary veins are pinnate, and tertiary veins are networked

Through detailed morphological studies on willow-leaf gansu fruit, the researchers believe that it is a typical terrestrial herb dicot angiosperm, which may grow in low-lying moist habitats on the lakeshore
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At the same time, combined with the early angiosperm fossil records of other Jehol biota, it can be seen that the dicot angiosperm in the middle and late Early Cretaceous has a certain diversity

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42072014, 41872010, 41972010 and 4162023), the Second Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Scientific Investigation and Research Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology (2019QZKK0704) and the Fundamental Research Fund Project of Lanzhou University (Lzujbky-2019-45)
.

(Source: Science Net)

Related paper information: https://doi.

https://doi.
org/10.
1093/nsr/nwab084 https://doi.
org/10.
1093/nsr/nwab084