Abstract:

 Understanding on the history of angiosperms is hinged with our appreciation of the relationship among extant angiosperms. Formerly European and American palaeobotanists believed that angiosperms cannot be older than the Cretaceous, leaving the origin of angiosperms as if a sudden explosion during the Early Cretaceous. But molecular clock and systematic analysis suggested that angiosperms should have been in place in the Triassic or at least the Jurassic, but this point of view lacked fossil support. Therefore the fates of angiosperm evolution hypotheses are hinged with the existence of fossil ?owers in the Jurassic. Herein we introduce three taxa of angiosperms from a single Jurassic fossil locality in western Liaoning, China, con?rming the existence of angiosperms in the Jurassic, advancing a new theory on the homology of angiosperm gynoecium, and paving the road for further development of plant systematics.

Key words:  , ?ower, angiosperm, origin, Jurassic, systematics, palaeobotany, Unifying Theory