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AOBPreview published online on August 6, 2007
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcm160
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Early Cretaceous Angiosperm Invasion of Western Europe and Major Environmental Changes

C. Coiffard1, B. Gomez2,* and F. Thevenard1

1 UCB Lyon 1 et UMR 5125, Paléobotanique, 7 rue Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France
2 UMR 6118 du CNRS Géosciences, Université Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, avenue du Général Leclerc, F-35042 Rennes, France

* For correspondence. E-mail bernard.gomez{at}univ-rennes1.fr

Received: 8 February 2007    Returned for revision: 26 March 2007    Accepted: 16 May 2007   

Background and Aims: At the beginning of the Late Cretaceous, angiosperms already inhabited all the environments and overtopped previously gymnosperm-dominated floras, especially in disturbed freshwater-related environments. The aim of this paper is to define what fossil plant ecology occurred during the early Cretaceous in order to follow the early spread of angiosperm taxa.

Methods: Floristic lists and localities from the Barremian to the Albian of Europe are analysed with the Wagner's Parsimony Method.

Key results: The Wagner's Parsimony Method indicates that (a) during the Barremian, matoniaceous ferns formed a savannah-like vegetation, while angiosperms composed freshwater aquatic vegetation; (b) during the Late Aptian humid phase, conifers increased, while matoniaceous ferns decreased, reflecting the closure of the vegetation; and (c) from the Albian, warmer and drier conditions induced the recovery of the matoniaceous ferns, while core angiosperms first developed in floodplains.

Conclusions: During the late Early Cretaceous (Barremian–Albian), angiosperms showed a stepwise widening of their ecological range, being recorded first during the Barremian as aquatic plant mega-remains and at the Cenomanian onwards occurred in all the environments.

Key words: Wagner's Parsimony Method, angiosperms, conifers, gymnosperms, ecology, environment, upper Lower Cretaceous, Europe


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