The Dawn Angiosperms: Uncovering the Origin of Flowering Plants

ISBN-13: 9783319863771 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 407 str.

Xin Wang

Opis

This book about fossil plants of prehistoric angiosperms offers the newest research on their origin. It emphasizes the early Cretaceous and Jurassic materials and integrates multiple techniques to study the morphology, anatomy and phylogeny of the fossils.

Spis treści

Introduction.- Suggested angiosperm ancestors.- Angiosperms: characters and criteria.- Background for the plant fossils.- Flowers from the Early Cretaceous.- Flower-related fossils from the Jurassic.- Problematic fossils.- Making of the flower.

Blurb

This book discusses the controversial and conflicting hypotheses on the origin of angiosperms, which was generally assumed to be restricted to the Cretaceous and later ages. Since publishing the first edition of “The Dawn of Angiosperms” in 2010, several important advances have been made in this field of science, namely 1) the discovery of new fossil angiosperms from the Jurassic; 2) European researchers discovering angiosperm-like pollen from the Triassic; and most importantly 3) the discovery of a perfect flower from the Jurassic. All of these findings are at odds with the currently widely accepted evolutionary theories, and thus call upon us to critically reassess botanical theory.

Accordingly, the new edition of this book not only includes more new fossil taxa, but also documents them in greater detail and corrects many commonly held misconceptions. In so doing, it makes related studies and teaching on the early history of angiosperms more realistic, concrete, and tangible, providing concrete fossil evidence as the basis for future research, and helping to distinguish the most accurate botanical hypotheses.