XVI International Botanical Congess

One of the most significant factors that affect the recognition of monocot fossils is the lack of recognizable morphological synapomorphies. Unless the fossils have characters preserved comparable to those present in extant monocots, their taxonomic placement are quite unreliable. We analyzed the widely accepted oldest records for monocots represented by leaves, pollen and fossil flowers. The fossils were included in several data matrixes. Our analysis reveals that putative monocot leaves and pollen grains are too ambiguous to be considered monocotyledons. The fossil flowers are the most reliable and uniquevocal.The paleobotanical record indicates that for the monocots, all the superorders have at least one reliable fossil occurrence in the Upper Cretaceous and all have recognizable fossils(comparable to modern taxa) by the Eocene.