Strombothelya gen. nov., a fossil angiosperm with two species in mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17348/jbrit.v13.i2.797Abstract
Strombothelya, a new genus of fossil angiosperms from Myanmar amber deposits, is represented by 2 flowers that are here described as separate species. Flowers of Strombothelya have 5 spreading, more or less distinctly veined sepals. Petals are absent. There are 10 inwardly arching stamens and a half-inferior ovary, whose broadly conic superior portion terminates in 1 or 3 stout, columnar, apically truncate styles. The superior portion has a papillate surface that was probably nectarifer-ous. The inferior portion of the ovary in both species is obconic and 5- or 10-ribbed. The fossils are comparable in certain respects to the genus Tropidogyne, described earlier from the same amber deposits. The 3 species of Tropidogyne have flowers with 5 or 10 stamens and 2 or 3 slender, curved, acutely-tipped styles. The inferior portion of the ovary is strongly 10-ribbed, while the superior portion is flat or cushion-shaped and bears a lobed nectar-disc. Strombothelya and Tropidogyne inhabited a Cretaceous araucarian rainforest, which may have been located in the Southern Hemisphere continent of Gondwana.
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