Images - Arranged by Taxonomic Groups

Angiosperms

Arctic Fossil Angiosperm Images

Angiosperms (flowering plants) first appear commonly in the fossil record of the North Pacific region in the Albian, having migrated from lower latitudes. They often first occur in silts and sands representative of disturbed river margins before spreading into more stable understorey environments in the Cenomanian where they become particularly diverse in mid successional seral communities. They do not appear to have been a common component of mire communities until the latest Cretaceous and Paleocene.

Typified by bisexual reproductive structures surrounded by colored petals and sepals that often, together with scent, attract and guide pollinators they also often bear leaves with reticulate venation and have wood with vessels. These characters are not universal, however, to the extent that no single feature that is likely to be preserved can be used to define a flowering plant.

Many of the Cretaceous Arctic woody species were probably wind pollinated and lacked conspicuous flowers, just as modern Arctic angiosperm trees are (e.g. Salix, Alnus, Populus etc.).

Classically angiosperms are divided into two groups - monocotylonous (monocots) typified by grasses, lilies and palms that tend to have linear leaves with parallel veins, and dicotyledonous (dicots) such as oaks, willows, sycamores and magnolias that commonly have broader leaves with branching vein systems. This division is useful for isolated leaf fossils where only leaf form and venation may be preserved, so we retain it here.