<div dir="ltr">Dear Gary:<div><br></div><div>Thanks for sharing but the person who wrote it needs to review Geological eras/periods and fossil evidence of flowering plants.</div><div><br></div><div>1) Is it true that 105 Million years ago is mid-Mesozoic? The Mesozoic consists of the Permian, Jurassic and Cretaceous. I forget how long each lasts but wouldn't it be more likely that mid-Mesozoic is sometime in the Jurassic? Yes, I know that these periods didn't last equal amounts of time.</div><div><br></div><div>2) The fossil record shows that flowering plants are at least 120 million years old. The oldest are from China and Australia. It's just that no one has found a fossil flower in northern Spain yet. The oldest member of the magnolia or liriodendron family is 100 million years old and comes from Kansas. Magnolias are beetle-pollinated in the modern day so who is to say which plant was visited by this beetle? In fact, some very interesting flower fossils have been found within this time frame. See the following link.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-archaeanthus-ancient-ancestor-tulip-tree-01379.html" target="_blank">http://www.sci-news.com/paleon<wbr>tology/science-archaeanthus-<wbr>ancient-ancestor-tulip-tree-<wbr>01379.html</a></div><div><br></div><div>3) How can anyone say for sure that this beetle was carrying the pollen of a cone-bearing or naked ovule tree (a gymnosperm) based on the pollen grains? The grains produced by many basal flowering plants (magnolias, custard apples, Illicium), many monocots and the odder gymnosperms (gingko, cycads) look remarkably similar. They are shaped like footballs or jelly beans with a germination slit (sulcus) running from pole to pole. That's what I see in the photo. So let's be cautious.</div><div><br></div><div>4) For those interested, this new beetle fossil was placed in the family, Oedemeridae. If you live in the eastern part of America wait for the flowering of liver leaf (Hepatica acutiloba or H. nobilis). Oedemerids in the genus Asclera like to crawl into the flowers and eat the pollen and chew up the tiny pistils.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2484189?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">https://www.jstor.org/stable/2484189?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>5) The idea that flowering plants "replaced" gymnosperms as sources of pollen and nectar for earlier evolved lineages of beetles, flies, moths and thrips is not new. Please see the last chapter in my book (1999) and I'll bet Dr. Lambadiera didn't give me any credit. </div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3636149.html" target="_blank">http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/<wbr>books/book/chicago/R/<wbr>bo3636149.html</a><br></div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 2:15 PM, Krupnick, Gary <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:KRUPNICK@si.edu" target="_blank">KRUPNICK@si.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<h4><span style="font-family:minion,serif">News<u></u><u></u></span></h4>
<p class="gmail-m_1238024504150077321gmail-m_3868752404159514817gmail-m_-8538222835635519750m_-4636559863271002648MediaOnly"><b><u></u> <u></u></b></p>
<h2 style="line-height:19pt"><span style="font-family:minion,serif;font-style:normal">Smithsonian
<u></u><u></u></span></h2>
<h2><span style="font-family:minion,serif">National Museum of Natural History<u></u><u></u></span></h2>
<p class="gmail-m_1238024504150077321gmail-m_3868752404159514817gmail-m_-8538222835635519750m_-4636559863271002648MediaOnly"><b><u></u> <u></u></b></p>
<p class="gmail-m_1238024504150077321gmail-m_3868752404159514817gmail-m_-8538222835635519750m_-4636559863271002648PublicOnly" style="line-height:150%"><span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)"><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__newsdesk.si.edu_releases_mid-2Dmesozoic-2Dbeetle-2Dpollen-2Dpreserved-2Damber-2Dstir-2Dnew-2Dquestions-2Drise-2Dflowering-2Dplants-2Dand-2Dthe&d=DwMFAg&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=vELpXRm7sCfTzV7V_rIlRA&m=JQpcCynA17v4Ct7DPr1qIU6m8lGzty74RGCmQvENr4s&s=1JkB_S8OkWLAcknnoFnTQj2uqwPVqZ2bW3xTJwqJvNg&e=" target="_blank">http://newsdesk.si.edu/release<wbr>s/mid-mesozoic-beetle-pollen-p<wbr>reserved-amber-stir-new-questi<wbr>ons-rise-flowering-plants-and-<wbr>the</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14pt">Mid-Mesozoic Beetle, Pollen Preserved in Amber Stirs New<br>
Questions on Rise of Flowering Plants and their Pollinators<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><i><span style="font-size:13pt">Smithsonian Scientist, Collaborators Point to Growing Evidence of<br>
Rich Insect Pollinator Relationships in Deep Time</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:13pt"><u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
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<p class="gmail-m_1238024504150077321gmail-m_3868752404159514817gmail-m_-8538222835635519750m_-4636559863271002648DefaultText" style="line-height:19pt">Named for Charles Darwin, the only known specimen of a newly discovered beetle,
<i>Darwinylus marcosi</i>, died in a sticky gob of tree sap some 105 million years ago in what is now northern Spain. As it thrashed about before drowning, more than 100 clumped pollen grains were dislodged from its body and released into the resin. Five grains
remained stuck to the beetle itself. Preserved with the beetle in the now-hard amber, the grains reveal that the beetle had been chewing a pollen meal with its jaw-like mouthparts just before it died.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="gmail-m_1238024504150077321gmail-m_3868752404159514817gmail-m_-8538222835635519750m_-4636559863271002648DefaultText" style="line-height:19pt">Scientists familiar with this era in earth’s history, the mid-Mesozoic, didn’t need to ponder long about what flowers produced the pollen. The answer is none. The amber dates to
a time when flowering plants—angiosperms—were just beginning to appear and the earth was overwhelmingly dominated by diverse, non-flowering plant species, such as cycads, ginkgoaleans, bennettitaleans and conifers—the gymnosperms.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="gmail-m_1238024504150077321gmail-m_3868752404159514817gmail-m_-8538222835635519750m_-4636559863271002648DefaultText" style="line-height:19pt">Now, the discovery of
<i><span lang="IT">D. marcosi</span></i> in Spanish amber is proof of a new insect pollination mode that dates to the mid-Mesozoic: beetles with biting or “jaw-like mouthparts and a chewing feeding style,” says
<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__paleobiology.si.edu_staff_individuals_labandeira.cfm&d=DwMFAg&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=vELpXRm7sCfTzV7V_rIlRA&m=JQpcCynA17v4Ct7DPr1qIU6m8lGzty74RGCmQvENr4s&s=AB5LzF6UH6nVddaLEmuqQJbLh3eliMwbJvFp096-OuE&e=" target="_blank">Conrad Labandeira</a>, a paleobiologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. This amber fossil is the “… first, direct evidence of a fourth major gymnosperm–insect pollination
mode during this time.” A study on this discovery—and its significance in the context of a growing body of evidence of gymnosperm–insect pollinator relationships and modes leading up to the rise of flowering plants—was published today, March 2, 2017, in the
journal <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__dx.doi.org_10.1016_j.cub.2017.02.009&d=DwMFAg&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=vELpXRm7sCfTzV7V_rIlRA&m=JQpcCynA17v4Ct7DPr1qIU6m8lGzty74RGCmQvENr4s&s=c2nHywNThdhsv9drRXdKgX6u25ngvwk73TxxVLxmzL4&e=" target="_blank"><i>Current</i> <i>
Biology</i></a>. A display featuring key findings from this study and gymnosperm-insect pollinator relationships will be included in the museum’s
<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__newsdesk.si.edu_releases_smithsonian-2Ds-2Dnational-2Dmuseum-2Dnatural-2Dhistory-2Dbuild-2Dnew-2Ddinosaur-2Dhall&d=DwMFAg&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=vELpXRm7sCfTzV7V_rIlRA&m=JQpcCynA17v4Ct7DPr1qIU6m8lGzty74RGCmQvENr4s&s=W7Jr883NTUGslsZUFgfug4taFU7jQzu4DVLkOlzfvvE&e=" target="_blank">
new fossil hall</a>, scheduled to open in 2019. <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">[more information at the
<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__newsdesk.si.edu_releases_mid-2Dmesozoic-2Dbeetle-2Dpollen-2Dpreserved-2Damber-2Dstir-2Dnew-2Dquestions-2Drise-2Dflowering-2Dplants-2Dand-2Dthe&d=DwMFAg&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=vELpXRm7sCfTzV7V_rIlRA&m=JQpcCynA17v4Ct7DPr1qIU6m8lGzty74RGCmQvENr4s&s=1JkB_S8OkWLAcknnoFnTQj2uqwPVqZ2bW3xTJwqJvNg&e=" target="_blank">
link</a>]<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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