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About the Image

A partial inflorescence and two flowers from the Middle Eocene Princeton Chert, British Columbia, Canada, digitally reconstructed from serial sections using the program AMIRA 3.1.1. The raceme (left) represents an immature apical portion of the inflorescence, 2.9 mm long, with bracts (white) and stamens (green) visible. Fossil flowers are only 0.8 mm in diameter, making the use of three-dimensional reconstructions extremely helpful in visualizing the whole flowers. Flowers have a subtending bract (white), no perianth, five stamens (yellow) and four carpels (green). Anatomy, morphology and phylogenetic analysis indicate these fossils are most similar to Saururus (lizard’s-tail; Saururaceae, Piperales). Today, Saururus is found in eastern North America and in eastern Asia. Fossil fruits and seeds of Saururaceae are found only in the late Eocene-Pliocene of Europe and Siberia. The Princeton fossils represent the oldest and first North American record of this family, as well as the first fossil saururaceous pollen and flowers known in the world.