Frugivory is an important ecological tie between animals and angiosperms.It plays an important role in the evolution of food webs and energy flow networks in the ecosystem.However,little is known about how old this re...Frugivory is an important ecological tie between animals and angiosperms.It plays an important role in the evolution of food webs and energy flow networks in the ecosystem.However,little is known about how old this relationship can be due to lack of relevant fossil evidence.Here,the authors report a fossil fruit,Jurafructus gen.nov.,a putative angiosperm from the Middle-Late Jurassic(>164 Ma)of Daohugou Village,Inner Mongolia,China,which provides the currently earliest evidence of frugivory.The fossil is a more or less three-dimensionally preserved coalified drupe that has been damaged by animals in two different ways.The pericarp,in addition to the seed coat surrounding parenchyma seed contents,is suggestive of an angiospermous affinity,as such a 3+3 structure is distinct from a three-layered seed coat in gymnosperms.The seed possesses a distal micropyle,attached on the base of the pericarp,suggestive of a former orthotropous ovule in the gynoecium.The damaged pericarp of Jurafructus suggests that firugivory can be dated back to the Middle-Late Jurassic.Apparently,the ecological relationship between angiosperms and animals extends deep into the fossil record.展开更多
基金This research is supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program(B)of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDB26000000)National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program 2012CB821901)National Natural Science Foundation of China(41688103,91514302,41572046).
文摘Frugivory is an important ecological tie between animals and angiosperms.It plays an important role in the evolution of food webs and energy flow networks in the ecosystem.However,little is known about how old this relationship can be due to lack of relevant fossil evidence.Here,the authors report a fossil fruit,Jurafructus gen.nov.,a putative angiosperm from the Middle-Late Jurassic(>164 Ma)of Daohugou Village,Inner Mongolia,China,which provides the currently earliest evidence of frugivory.The fossil is a more or less three-dimensionally preserved coalified drupe that has been damaged by animals in two different ways.The pericarp,in addition to the seed coat surrounding parenchyma seed contents,is suggestive of an angiospermous affinity,as such a 3+3 structure is distinct from a three-layered seed coat in gymnosperms.The seed possesses a distal micropyle,attached on the base of the pericarp,suggestive of a former orthotropous ovule in the gynoecium.The damaged pericarp of Jurafructus suggests that firugivory can be dated back to the Middle-Late Jurassic.Apparently,the ecological relationship between angiosperms and animals extends deep into the fossil record.
