Abstract
Archaeamphora longicervia H. Q. Li was described as an herbaceous, Sarraceniaceae-like pitcher plant from the mid Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province, northeastern China. Here, a re-investigation of A. longicervia specimens from the Yixian Formation provides new insights into its identity and the morphology of pitcher plants claimed by Li. We demonstrate that putative pitchers of Archaeamphora are insect-induced leaf galls that consist of three components: (1) an innermost larval chamber; (2) an intermediate zone of nutritive tissue; and (3) an outermost wall of sclerenchyma. Archaeamphora is not a carnivorous, Sarraceniaceae-like angiosperm, but represents insect-galled leaves of the previously reported gymnosperm Liaoningocladus boii G. Sun et al. from the Yixian Formation.
Highlights
Li (2005) described Archaeamphora longicervia H
The two fossils represent a distal shoot bearing spirally arranged leaves and a detached leaf fragment, respectively (Figures 1A,D). These leaves are lanceolate in form, about 50–80 × 2–6 mm in size, with nearly parallel veins, ca. 4–11 in number at the widest portions of each leaf, usually forking once near slightly constricted leaf bases, but unbranched and converging toward the acute or blunt apexes
Molecular clock dating, based on robust phylogenetic data, estimates an Eocene divergence time of 44–53 Ma for the Sarraceniaceae lineage (Ellison et al, 2012). This age estimate is further corroborated by fossil evidence from the sister group of Sarraceniaceae, Roridulaceae, that occur as leaves from Eocene Baltic amber dated at 35–47 Ma (Sadowski et al, 2015)
Summary
Li (2005) described Archaeamphora longicervia H. Q. Li as an “Early Cretaceous sarraceniaceanlike pitcher plant” from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province in northeastern China. Li as an “Early Cretaceous sarraceniaceanlike pitcher plant” from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province in northeastern China These fossils were interpreted by Li as an herbaceous plant having spirally arranged, ascidiate pitchers and phyllodia-like leaves with parallel veins, similar to modern Sarraceniaceae, a New World carnivorous plant family of Ericales represented by three extant genera: Sarracenia L., Darlingtonia Torr., and Heliamphora Benth. The two fossils presented here (Figure 1) were collected from the Jianshangou Bed of the Yixian Formation at Huangbanjigou Village near Beipiao City, Liaoning Province, northeastern China (Sun et al, 1998, 2001, 2011; Yang and Wang, 2013).
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