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Evolution, Civil War History Entwine in Fossil Find

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2013Sciencebenjamin butler, civil war history, dutch gap, early cretaceous, eudicots, evolution, flowering plant evolution, fossil, fossil beds, fossil leaf fragment, freedmen, geologic deposits, greek word, james river, leo j hickey, nathan jud, North America, oldest flowering plants, paleobotanist, plant evolution, pollen, potomac river region, potomacapnos, potomacapnos apeleutheron, smithsonian institution, steven miller, union army, university of maryland, virginia canal bank

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A fossil leaf fragment collected decades ago on a Virginia canal bank has been identified by a University of Maryland doctoral student as one of North America’s oldest flowering plants, a 115- to 125-million-year-old species new to science. The fossil find, an ancient relative of today’s bleeding hearts, poses a new puzzle in the study of plant evolution: did Earth’s dominant group of flowering plants evolve along with its distinctive pollen? Or did pollen come later?

The find also unearths a forgotten chapter in Civil War history reminiscent of the film “Twelve Years a Slave,” but with a twist. In 1864, Union Army troops forced a group of freed slaves into involuntary labor, digging a canal along the James River at Dutch Gap, Va. The captive men’s shovels exposed the oldest flowering plant fossil beds in North America, where the new plant species was ultimately found. (more…)

Gardener’s Delight Offers Glimpse into the Evolution of Flowering Plants

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2012Nature, Sciencealessandra sullivan, ancient lineage, anemonella thalictroides, antirrhinum majus, arabidopsis thaliana, blossoms, carpels, darwin, di stilio lab, double dandy peony, double peppermint petunia, doubled strawberry, eudicots, family ranunculaceae, flower, flower diversification, flowering species, function, gene, genetic interruption, geologic time, gunter theissen, kelsey galimba, mutant, mutation, northeastern us, period, petal, pink, plant, plant model, rainer melzer, rose, rue anemone, seed production, sexual organ, sexual reproduction, snapdragon, thalictrum, theadora tolkin, vanilla lily, veronica di stilio

The Pink Double Dandy peony, the Double Peppermint petunia, the Doubled Strawberry Vanilla lily and nearly all roses are varieties cultivated for their double flowers.

The blossoms of these and other such plants are lush with extra petals in place of the parts of the flower needed for sexual reproduction and seed production, meaning double flowers – though beautiful – are mutants and usually sterile.

The genetic interruption that causes that mutation helped scientists in the 1990s pinpoint the genes responsible for normal development of sexual organs stamens and carpels in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, long used as a plant model by biologists. (more…)

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Evolution, Civil War History Entwine in Fossil Find

Gardener’s Delight Offers Glimpse into the Evolution of Flowering Plants