IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v448y2007i7157d10.1038_nature06039.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dating the origin of the Orchidaceae from a fossil orchid with its pollinator

Author

Listed:
  • Santiago R. Ramírez

    (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA)

  • Barbara Gravendeel

    (Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, Universiteit Leiden, P.O. Box 9514, Leiden, The Netherlands)

  • Rodrigo B. Singer

    (Depto Botânica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, RS 91501-970, Porto Alegre, Brasil)

  • Charles R. Marshall

    (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
    Harvard University, 20 Oxford St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA)

  • Naomi E. Pierce

    (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA)

Abstract

Caught in amber Since Darwin's time, biologists have been fascinated by the intimate relationship between orchids and their pollinators. The antiquity of this relationship is demonstrated by the remarkable fossil shown on the cover. Preserved in 15–20-million-year-old amber from the Dominican Republic, a worker stingless bee carries an orchid pollinarium. The pollinarium is the male reproductive structure, transferred as a single unit during pollination, complete with a mass of pollen grains. The find, surprisingly, is the first definitive fossil from the Orchidaceae family. The pollinarium's morphology locates the plant in the subtribe Goodyerinae. By combining this information with dates from related fossil plants, a new calibration of the molecular phylogeny of the Orchidaceae has been obtained. The analysis rejects the common assumption of a recent (Tertiary) origin for orchids, and suggests, instead, that they originated during the Late Cretaceous, 80 million years ago.

Suggested Citation

  • Santiago R. Ramírez & Barbara Gravendeel & Rodrigo B. Singer & Charles R. Marshall & Naomi E. Pierce, 2007. "Dating the origin of the Orchidaceae from a fossil orchid with its pollinator," Nature, Nature, vol. 448(7157), pages 1042-1045, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:448:y:2007:i:7157:d:10.1038_nature06039
    DOI: 10.1038/nature06039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06039
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature06039?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shichao Chen & Dong-Kap Kim & Mark W Chase & Joo-Hwan Kim, 2013. "Networks in a Large-Scale Phylogenetic Analysis: Reconstructing Evolutionary History of Asparagales (Lilianae) Based on Four Plastid Genes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-18, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:448:y:2007:i:7157:d:10.1038_nature06039. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.