Flower Perfectly Preserved in 100-Million-Year-Old Amber Reveals Ancient Reproduction

Posted on January 5, 2014

The flowering plant pictured above is preserved in 100-million-year old amber. The cluster of 18 tiny flowers is from the Cretaceous Period. It is one of the most complete ever found and it is an amazing find. Even more amazing is that the fossil reveals the oldest evidence of sexual reproduction in a flowering plant. Scientists discovered with a microscope that one of the flowers is in the process of making new seeds. Scientists say the extinct plant used an identical reproduction process that flowering plants still use today. The image below shows pollen tubes penetrating the stigma on the ancient flower.

The fossils were discovered in amber mines in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar. The ancient flowering plant has been named named Micropetasos burmensis. Researchers from Oregon State University and Germany published their findings on the fossils in the Journal of the Botanical Institute of Texas.

George Poinar, Jr., a professor emeritus in the Department of Integrative Biology at the OSU College of Science, said in the announcement, "In Cretaceous flowers we've never before seen a fossil that shows the pollen tube actually entering the stigma. This is the beauty of amber fossils. They are preserved so rapidly after entering the resin that structures such as pollen grains and tubes can be detected with a microscope."

Poinar also says, "The evolution of flowering plants caused an enormous change in the biodiversity of life on Earth, especially in the tropics and subtropics. New associations between these small flowering plants and various types of insects and other animal life resulted in the successful distribution and evolution of these plants through most of the world today. It's interesting that the mechanisms for reproduction that are still with us today had already been established some 100 million years ago."

PLANTS
AMBER