Am J Bot. 1998 Jul;85(7):964.
Recent discoveries of fossil reproductive structures from deposits of the Raritan Formation in New Jersey (Turonian, Upper Cretaceous, ~90 million years BP) include a previously undescribed representative of the Order Capparales. The fossils are usually charcoalified with three-dimensional structure and excellent anatomical details. In the present contribution, we introduce a taxon represented by fossil flowers that have a combination of characters now found in the families of the Order Capparales sensu Cronquist. The fossil species is characterized by an unique suite of characters, such as the presence of a gynophore, arrangement of the sepals, unequal petal size, monothecal anthers, and a bicarpellate gynoecium, that are found in extant families of the Order Capparales. This new taxon constitutes an important addition to our understanding of Cretaceous angiosperm diversity and represents the oldest known fossil record for the Capparales. Heretofore, the oldest known capparalean was from the Late Tertiary sediments of North America.
最近在新泽西州拉瑞坦组（上白垩统，约 9000 万年前）的沉积物中发现了化石生殖结构，其中包括以前未描述的山柑目代表。这些化石通常是碳化的，具有三维结构和极好的解剖细节。在本研究中，我们介绍了一个以化石花为代表的分类群，其特征是具有山柑目（根据 Cronquist 的定义）科的组合特征。该化石种的特征是具有独特的一系列特征，如花托的存在、萼片的排列、花瓣大小不等、单心皮花药和双心皮雌蕊，这些特征在现存的山柑目科中都有发现。这个新的分类群为我们理解白垩纪被子植物多样性提供了重要的补充，也是已知最古老的山柑目化石记录。迄今为止，已知最古老的山柑目植物来自北美的晚第三纪沉积物。
