Abstract
The Cretaceous fossil record of amber provides a variety of evidence that is essential for greater understanding of early pollination strategies. Here, we describe four pieces of ca. 99 million-year-old (early Cenomanian) Myanmar amber containing four, closely related genera of short-winged flower beetles (Coleoptera: Kateretidae) associated with abundant pollen grains identified as three distinct palynomorphotypes of the gymnosperm Cycadopites, and Praenymphaeapollenites cenomaniensis gen. and sp. nov., a form-taxon of pollen from a basal angiosperm lineage of water lilies (Nymphaeales: Nymphaeaceae). We demonstrate how a gymnosperm to angiosperm plant-host shift occurred during the mid-Cretaceous, from a generalist pollen-feeding family of beetles, which served as a driving mechanism for the subsequent success of flowering plants.
Highlights
For much of land plant history, terrestrial vegetation consisted of free-sporing plants such as mosses, lycopods, ferns, horsetails, and gymnospermous seed plants whose mid-Mesozoic representatives included overwhelmingly conifers, cycads, ginkgoaleans, czekanowskialeans, corystosperms, caytonialeans, bennettitaleans, and gnetaleans (Labandeira et al, 2007; Labandeira, 2010; Friis et al, 2011)
The second hypothesis states that the earliest angiosperm flowers were pollinated both by insects and abiotic mechanisms such as wind and possibly water. These two hypotheses have been addressed in three fundamental ways: (1) various parsimony-based analyses of flower types and their pollen based on an incomplete, early angiosperm record (Taylor and Hu, 2010; Hu et al, 2012, 2008); (2) assessments of the relevant fossil insect record (Labandeira, 2010; Peris et al, 2017); and (3) contemporaneous pollination ecology studies applicable to the Early Cretaceous (Bernhardt and Thien, 1987; Endress and Igersheim, 2000; Thien et al, 2009; Endress, 2010)
Each piece contained a varied number of fossil beetles that were assigned to four different species of Kateretidae: Electrumeretes birmanicus, Polliniretes penalveri, Cretaretes minimus, and Eoceniretes antiquus
Summary
For much of land plant history, terrestrial vegetation consisted of free-sporing plants such as mosses, lycopods, ferns, horsetails, and gymnospermous seed plants whose mid-Mesozoic representatives included overwhelmingly conifers, cycads, ginkgoaleans, czekanowskialeans, corystosperms, caytonialeans, bennettitaleans, and gnetaleans (Labandeira et al, 2007; Labandeira, 2010; Friis et al, 2011). The second hypothesis states that the earliest angiosperm flowers were pollinated both by insects and abiotic mechanisms such as wind and possibly water (ambophily) (von Balthazar and Endress, 1999; Thien et al, 2009) These two hypotheses have been addressed in three fundamental ways: (1) various parsimony-based analyses of flower types and their pollen based on an incomplete, early angiosperm record (Taylor and Hu, 2010; Hu et al, 2012, 2008); (2) assessments of the relevant fossil insect record (Labandeira, 2010; Peris et al, 2017); and (3) contemporaneous pollination ecology studies applicable to the Early Cretaceous (Bernhardt and Thien, 1987; Endress and Igersheim, 2000; Thien et al, 2009; Endress, 2010)
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