Angiosperms fossils from Middle Jurassic discovered in NW China-Xinhua

Angiosperms fossils from Middle Jurassic discovered in NW China

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2023-03-26 00:38:15

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese research team has found angiosperms fossils from the Middle Jurassic in northwest China, according to the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Researchers conducted the Micro-CT examination of the fossil plants and found the specimens are of infructescences with elongated or round-triangular samaroid fruits, each with a single basal anatropous bitegmic ovule, which are key features of angiosperms.

"This is the earliest fossil record of angiosperms in northwest China, which helps us further understand the origin and early evolutionary history of angiosperms," said Wang Xin, a researcher with the NIGP.

The discovery has not only revealed the existence of angiosperms in the Jurassic but also suggested that angiosperms could have flourished in the Jurassic, considering the fossil abundance of the genus in the examined strata, according to the study.

The fossils were from northwest China's Qinghai and Gansu provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and were named Qingganninginfructus formosa by the researchers.

The study, published in the journal Life, was a result of researchers from the School of Earth Sciences of Lanzhou University, NIGP, Ningxia Geological Museum, and the Department of Geology of Northwest University. 

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