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Extinct CP

Archaeamphora longicervia is an extinct species of pitcher plant, fossils of which were discovered recently China. The wild thing about it is that its placement in the fossil record indicates that Archaeamphora it is one of the three oldest genera of Angiosperms known! Li, who published the specis in 2005 noted that "the existence of a so highly derived Angiosperm in the Early Cretaceous suggests that Angiosperms should have originated much earlier, maybe back to 280 mya as the molecular clock studies suggested".

Read more about it here. From the artist's rendition you can see that it bears similarities to Sarracenia purpurea. Pretty cool, huh?

-noah
 
Very cool. Thanks for sharing this. While it's cool for us as CPers, it's also interesting in general because of the extrapolations being made.

Neeto. :)
 
What a fascinating discovery! It's so small, when I first read your notice I imagined a "prehistoric sized" pitcher plant that could eat a horse. Now all we need is a discovery of a living specimen, Coelacanth-style. I also learned of the species designation of H. exappendiculata from the attached Wikipedia article. Two new species learned in one day!
 
Oh is that the one in Barry's book?
 
280 mya is completely nuts- that would be near the begining of all seed plants. Many older seed plants diverged later, so that is incorrect. The closest current estimate is in the late triassic
 
280 mya is completely nuts- that would be near the begining of all seed plants. Many older seed plants diverged later, so that is incorrect. The closest current estimate is in the late triassic

I think that Li was saying that the closest current estimates were WRONG, and that having such a highly derived plant show up in the early Cretaceous indicates that angiosperms must have existed for quite some time by then. 280 mya could be a high figure - I really not an expert in this area - but the it makes sense to me that the date for angiosperm development would be pushed back by this kind of discovery.
 
Holy crap! Just saw the artist's rendition and I was really surprised. I'm grateful the modern Sarracenia don't look that last beast.
 
We already know that rapid spurts in Angiosperm evolution do occur, with the great radiation at the end of the Cretaceous period being case and point, with many very distinct families emerging a short timeframe. Therefore, knowing that this can and does occur , it is not a stretch of the imagination that this can happen farther in the past. The figure is high because several seed plant groups would have diverged after the flowering plants (Ginkgophyta) something that we currently have no evidence for.
 
  • #10
Whoa! I a pitcher plant that grows on a stalk would've been cool! Too bad it went extinct. :/
 
  • #11
Squash the stem down and reform the pitchers and you have an S. purpurea.
 
  • #12
i wonder which species all pitcher plants evolved from is..... would/could it be extinct?
Alex
 
  • #13
I remember a guy saying he discovered a species/genus somewhere in papua that looked like a cross between a Darlingtonia and a Sarracenia. Nothing ever became of that, so I guess it was all made up. If it was real and he knew where it was at he has no reason not to go on an expedition and collect it. He's be famous. If he couldn't afford to go again, i'm sure one of the other great CP explorers would gladly go with him and chip in on the journey. I'd settle for a picture.
 
  • #14
Darlingtonia and Sarracenia? That'd kinda look like... psittacina....?
 
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