| Title | First Cretaceous flowers from Antarctica |
| Author | Eklund, H. |
| Author Affil | Eklund, H., University of Leeds, School of Earth Sciences, Leeds, United Kingdom |
| Source | Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 127(3-4), p.187-217, . Publisher: Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands. ISSN: 0034- 6667 |
| Publication Date | Dec. 2003 |
| Notes | In English. 109 refs. GeoRef Acc. No: 287077 |
| Index Terms | Antarctica--Antarctic Peninsula; Angiospermae; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarctica; assemblages; Cretaceous; flowers; Mesozoic; morphology; Myrtaceae; paleoecology; Plantae; Santonian; SEM data; Senonian; Siparunaceae; Spermatophyta; Table Nunatuk; Table Nunatuk Formation; taphonomy; Upper Cretaceous; Winteraceae |
| Abstract | This work documents the first Cretaceous flowers from Antarctica, and is one of few reports on Cretaceous flowers from the Southern Hemisphere as a whole. The flowers were recovered from a mesofossil assemblage from the Late Cretaceous (late Santonian, ca 85 Ma) Table Nunatak Formation, Antarctic Peninsula. All flowers are small, three-dimensional to slightly flattened and charcoalified. Eleven different types of flowers have been recognised. Five flower- types have a deep and cup-shaped hypanthium and several show features that indicate insect pollination. The systematic affinities of the flowers are difficult to establish with certainty, but three flowers may be related to extant Siparunaceae, Winteraceae and Myrtaceae, respectively. |
| URL | http://hdl.handle.net/10.1016/S0034-6667(03)00120-9 |
| Publication Type | journal article |
| Record ID | 84613 |