15 Million Year Old Flower Fossils

A new species of extinct plant that are estimated to be 15 million years old were discovered by US researchers.

17:34 17 February 2016

Two flowers that are estimated to be 15 years old were discovered by Professor George Poinar of Oregon State University. Called Strychnos electri, the new species of extinct plant, belongs to the genus which tropical shrubs, trees and vines are known to produce strychnine, a deadly toxin.

 

The plants, which were among the 500 fossils collected on a 1986 field trip, were remarkably complete, unlike most plant fossils found in amber, which are usually just fragments.

 

Prof Poinar said: "These flowers looked like they had just fallen from a tree. I thought they might be Strychnos, and I sent them to Lena (Professor Lena Struwe at Rutgers University) because I knew she was an expert in that genus."

 

"The characters mostly used to identify species of Strychnos are flower morphology, and that's what we luckily have for this fossil.”

"I looked at each specimen of New World species, photographed and measured it, and compared it to the photo George sent me. I asked myself, 'How do the hairs on the petals look?' 'Where are the hairs situated?' and so on."

 

"Species of the genus Strychnos are almost all toxic in some way," said Prof Poinar.

 

"Each plant has its own alkaloids with varying effects. Some are more toxic than others, and it may be that they were successful because their poisons offered some defence against herbivores."