A boreal early cradle of Angiosperms? Angiosperm-like pollen from the Middle Triassic of the Barents Sea (Norway)

By P. Hochuli, S. Feist-Burkhardt. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 2004

95 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The origin of flowering plants is still a matter of dispute. Several lines of evidence suggest that their origin may go back to the Triassic. This paper reports on pollen grains with angiosperm-like morphologies from marine Middle Triassic sediments of the Boreal Realm (Norwegian Arctic, Barents Sea area). The morphology of these pollen grains is comparable to forms recorded from the Early Cretaceous, which are generally attributed to angiosperms. The new finds of angiosperm-like pollen are the earliest in the fossil record so far and show an astonishing high diversity. In contrast to other early records, they come from high palaeolatitudes with an inferred warm-temperate climate. The new finds suggest the presence of the first angiosperms during the Middle Triassic (242–227 Ma) or, alternatively, provide evidence for an as-yet unknown group of gymnosperms, possibly an extinct sister group of the flowering plants.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2ecde8311267ae9a3f80342b37ecdf74979c7c21

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Citations in the corpus

Integrating Molecular Phylogenetic and Paleobotanical Evidence on Origin of the Flower (2008, background): “Cornet (1989a) also described angiosperm-like monosulcate pollen from the Late Triassic, with a tectal reticulum supported by columellae, and similar pollen has been found in Triassic rocks elsewhere (Doyle and Hotton 1991; Hochuli and Feist-Burkhardt 2004).”
Early evolution of angiosperm pollen as inferred from molecular and morphological phylogenetic analyses (2005, background): “Potential candidates are Triassic pollen grains first described as the Crinopolles group by Cornet (1989) and subsequently reported by other authors (Doyle & Hotton 1991, Hochuli & Feist-Burkhardt 2004).”
Integrating Early Cretaceous Fossils into the Phylogeny of Living Angiosperms: ANITA Lines and Relatives of Chloranthaceae (2014, background): “Rare reticulate-columellar monosulcate pollen has been reported from the Triassic of several areas (Cornet 1989; Doyle and Hotton 1991; Hochuli and Feist-Burkhardt 2004, 2013) and interpreted as angiospermous by some workers (Cornet 1989; Zavada 2007).”