Early Angiosperms and Their Associated Plants from Western Liaoning, China

This book reports the recent discoveries on early angiosperms and their associated plant fossils from the Upper Jurassic Jianshangou Formation ( generally equivalent to the "Jianshangou Bed" of the lower part of the Yixian Formation, considered here to be about 145 Ma in age ) of western Liaoning, Northeast China. Focusing on the early angiosperms represented by Archaefructus, the whole Jianshangou flora from western Liaoning is described. The authors have discussed the geological and geographical background of the first occurrence for the earliest known angiosperms in Northeast China during the late Jurassic and reviewed their recent hypothesis on the " Eastern Asian center of angiosperm origin". The geological age of the Jianshangou Formation, newly named by the present authors, is suggested to be late Jurassic baded mainly upon the fossil plants. In addition, the subdivision of the main evolutionary stages of early angiosperms in Northeast China and their comparisons to the relevant equivalent floras from Kazakhslan, Mongolia, eastern Russia, and even North America and Europe, is discussed also in the book.
This book includes 12 chapters, 75 plates, 48 textfigures and 5 tables. There are 88 species belonging to 56 genera, including 4 new genera, 41 new species and 4 new combinations or eemendations to the previous taxa concerned, described in the book. Both the Chinese and English version are provided in this book. Two species of archaefructus are reported here in detail This is a comprehensive presentation of a flora in which early angiosperms are also associated.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Stratigraphy and the establishment of the Jianshangou Formation
Chapter 3 The sections of the Jianshangou Formation
Chapter 4 Early angiosperms of the Jianshangou Formation
Chapter 5 Comparison of the early angiosperms from the Jianshangou Formation to some related early angiosperms in the world
Chapter 6 The major evolutionary stages of early angiosperms from NE China
Chapter 7 Eastern Asia as a center for angiosperm origin
Chapter 8 Composition and characteristics of Jianshangou flora
Chapter 9 Geological age of Jianshangou flora
Chapter 10 Comparison of Jianshangou flora with some related floras in China and broad
Chapter 11 Subdivision and correlation of the Younger Mesozoic strata in NE China and Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary
Chapter 12 Descriptions of the associated plants
References
Index