
The Dawn Angiosperms
Uncovering the Origin of Flowering Plants
Xin Wang(Author)
Springer (Publisher)
Published on 5. November 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
XXII, 238 pages
978-3-642-26472-6 (ISBN)
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Description
Angiosperms are the most diversi ed plant group in the world, being represented by ca 300,000 species in about 400 families. Like all of Life, including ourselves, they have had their own history and gone through many evolutionary stages before they arrived at their current forms. The origin of Angiospermae ( owering plants) has been the subject of much dispute because this is a key event in the history of life, and has a far-reaching in uence on our understanding of relationships among seed plants as a whole as well as within the angiosperms. Until recently most of palae- otanists recognized angiosperms only from the Cretaceous and younger strata. This contradicts the results of molecular analyses. I have been working on Mesozoic fossil plants for the past two decades, during which time I have studied a number of fossil plants. Some of these fossil plants have been published as Jurassic angiosperms, and, unsurprisingly, many questions and doubts have been raised about them. These questions need to be addressed se- ously and journal papers do not provide suf cient space to compare and relate these early angiosperms. In this book these pioneer angiosperms are documented in detail, sometimes with new specimens not studied before. Also, I propose a de nition of angiosperms that could be adopted in palaeobotany. My aim is to improve clarity and objectivity of judgment about what constitutes a fossil angiosperm.
More details
Series
Edition
2010
Language
English
Place of publication
Heidelberg
Germany
Publishing group
Springer Berlin
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Research
Illustrations
6 s/w Tabellen
6 Tables, black and white; XXII, 238 p.
Dimensions
Height: 23.5 cm
Width: 15.5 cm
Weight
403 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-642-26472-6 (9783642264726)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-642-01161-0
Schweitzer Classification
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Content
1. Introduction, 2. Suggested angiosperm ancestors, 3. Angiosperms: characters and criteria, 4. Background for the plant fossils, 5. Flowers from the Early Cretaceous, 6. Flower-related fossils from the Jurassic, 7. Trace of possible angiosperms in the Jurassic, 8. Making of the flower, 9. General conclusions, 10. Appendix