RESEARCH ARTICLE An unexpected noncarpellate epigynous flower from the Jurassic of China Qiang Fu1, Jose Bienvenido Diez2, Mike Pole3, Manuel Garcı´aA´ vila2,4, Zhong-Jian Liu5*, Hang Chu6, Yemao Hou7, Pengfei Yin7, Guo-Qiang Zhang5, Kaihe Du8, Xin Wang1* 1CAS Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Paleogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China; 2Departamento de Geociencias, Universidad de Vigo, Vigo, Spain; 3Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane Botanical Gardens Mt Coot-tha, Toowong, Australia; 4Facultade de Bioloxı´a, Asociacio´n Paleontolo´xica Galega, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain; 5State Forestry Administration Key Laboratory of Orchid Conservation and Utilization at College of Landscape Architecture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China; 6Tianjin Center, China Geological Survey, Tianjin, China; 7Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; 8Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Supramolecular Medicinal Materials and Applications, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China Abstract The origin of angiosperms has been a long-standing botanical debate. The great diversity of angiosperms in the Early Cretaceous makes the Jurassic a promising period in which to anticipate the origins of the angiosperms. Here, based on observations of 264 specimens of 198 *For correspondence: individual flowers preserved on 34 slabs in various states and orientations, from the South
[email protected] (Z-JL); Xiangshan Formation (Early Jurassic) of China, we describe a fossil flower, Nanjinganthus
[email protected] (XW) dendrostyla gen.