Amber Preserved 100 Million-Year-Old Plant in Reproduction Process
Geo Beats
2014-01-14
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Scientists say they’ve uncovered the oldest known example of floral reproduction.
Scientists say they’ve uncovered the oldest known example of floral reproduction.
Found in Burma, the specimen is encased in amber and dates back about 100 million years to the mid-Cretaceous era, the time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
What really has the fossilized plant community buzzing, is that the flower within was about to enter the seed-formation stage of plant reproduction when it was encased in the tree sap.
This gives researchers an unprecedented opportunity to take a close look at how flowering plants proliferated in their early years of existence.
Thus far they’ve determined that in all of that time, the floral reproduction process really hasn’t changed that much.
The amber-covered plant has pollen grains with two pollen tubes entering its stigma, a sign that, had it survived, the flower would have soon started to sow its seed.
Even better, the presence of a sticky substance has been confirmed, indicating that an insect was involved in the fertilization.
The specific flower genus and species is long extinct, with no surviving ancestors, but it stands as an important piece of evidence in further understanding the early spread of blooming plantlife.
Scientists say they’ve uncovered the oldest known example of floral reproduction.
Found in Burma, the specimen is encased in amber and dates back about 100 million years to the mid-Cretaceous era, the time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
What really has the fossilized plant community buzzing, is that the flower within was about to enter the seed-formation stage of plant reproduction when it was encased in the tree sap.
This gives researchers an unprecedented opportunity to take a close look at how flowering plants proliferated in their early years of existence.
Thus far they’ve determined that in all of that time, the floral reproduction process really hasn’t changed that much.
The amber-covered plant has pollen grains with two pollen tubes entering its stigma, a sign that, had it survived, the flower would have soon started to sow its seed.
Even better, the presence of a sticky substance has been confirmed, indicating that an insect was involved in the fertilization.
The specific flower genus and species is long extinct, with no surviving ancestors, but it stands as an important piece of evidence in further understanding the early spread of blooming plantlife.
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