XVI International Botanical Congess

Upper Cretaceous flowers from Turonian deposits in the northeastern USA have radically changed our understanding of timing in the radiation of the flowering plants. Taxa and characters now associated with highly specific modes of insect pollination appear about 90 mybp concomitant with new fossil reports of key anthophilous insects. Each major group of angiosperms including the asterids--represented by remarkable ericalean diversity, is already present in Turonian deposits. Although the timetable for angiosperm radiation has been compressed by these new fossil discoveries, there is considerably more diversity by the Early Tertiary. We will examine the relationship among Turonian innovations, subsequent Upper Cretaceous angiosperm radiation and the diversity of Early Tertiary angiosperms in phylogenetic context.