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

2017; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41598-017-11536-y

2045-2322

Cédric Del Rio, Thomas Haevermans, Dario De Franceschi,

Fern and Epiphyte Biology

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 demonstrates the complementarity of different types of fossil preservation for a better understanding of past floral diversity.