First record of an Icacinaceae Miers fossil flower from Le Quesnoy (Ypresian, France) amber.

ABSTRACT: Flowers embedded in amber are rare. Only about 70 flowers or inflorescences have been described among which only one lamiid is known. Nevertheless, these fossils are important to our understanding of evolutionary process and past diversity due to the exceptional preservation of fragile structures not normally preserved. In this work, a new flower named Icacinanthium tainiaphorum sp. nov. from Le Quesnoy (Houdancourt, Oise, France) is described. Our phylogenetic analysis with extant species suggests that the affinity of this flower lies with the family Icacinaceae, close to Natsiatum or Hosiea. The fossil shows a combination of features unknown in extant Icacinaceae and we thus propose the description of a new fossil genus. It reveals a previously unknown diversity in the family and demonst

SUBMITTER: Del Rio C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5593952 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature