Abstract
Recent advances in molecular phylogenetics and a series of important palaeobotanical discoveries have revolutionized our understanding of angiosperm diversification. Yet, the origin and early evolution of their most characteristic feature, the flower, remains poorly understood. In particular, the structure of the ancestral flower of all living angiosperms is still uncertain. Here we report model-based reconstructions for ancestral flowers at the deepest nodes in the phylogeny of angiosperms, using the largest data set of floral traits ever assembled. We reconstruct the ancestral angiosperm flower as bisexual and radially symmetric, with more than two whorls of three separate perianth organs each (undifferentiated tepals), more than two whorls of three separate stamens each, and more than five spirally arranged separate carpels. Although uncertainty remains for some of the characters, our reconstruction allows us to propose a new plausible scenario for the early diversification of flowers, leading to new testable hypotheses for future research on angiosperms.
Hervé Sauquet, Maria von Balthazar, Susana Magallón, James A. Doyle, Peter K. Endress, Emily J. Bailes, Erica Barroso de Morais, Kester Bull-Hereñu, Laetitia Carrive, Marion Chartier, Guillaume Chomicki, Mario Coiro, Raphaël Cornette, Juliana H. L. El Ottra, Cyril Epicoco, Charles S. P. Foster, Florian Jabbour, Agathe Haevermans, Thomas Haevermans, Rebeca Hernández, Stefan A. Little, Stefan Löfstrand, Javier A. Luna, Julien Massoni, Sophie Nadot, Susanne Pamperl, Charlotte Prieu, Elisabeth Reyes, Patrícia dos Santos, Kristel M. Schoonderwoerd, Susanne Sontag, Anaëlle Soulebeau, Yannick Staedler, Georg F. Tschan, Amy Wing-Sze Leung and Jürg Schönenberger. 2017. The Ancestral Flower of Angiosperms and Its Early Diversification. Nature Communications. 8, Article number: 16047. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms16047
Revealed: the first ever flower, 140m years ago, looked like a magnolia
theconversation.com/revealed-the-first-ever-flower-140m-years-ago-looked-like-a-magnolia-81861 via @ConversationUK