A minute mid-Cretaceous flower from Siberia and implications for the problem of basal angiosperms

A new taxon of fossil angiosperms, Callicrypta chlamydea n. gen., n. sp., is established for a minute pistillate flower less than 2 mm wide from the mid-Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of East Siberia. It is preserved as compression, showing under SEM a calyx of six sepals, a biserrate corolla and an apocarpous gynoecium. Pollen grains adhering to the perianth are like in Freyantha, a staminate flower from contemporaneous deposits. These floral structures are compared with the Amborellaceae and Menispermaceae suggesting a possible link between these families, with implications for the current concept of basal angiosperms.