''Dakotanthus cordiformis'' is an extinct species of flowering plant from the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

Western Interior Seaway The Western Interior Seaway (also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, the North American Inland Sea, or the Western Interior Sea) was a large inland sea (geology), inland sea that existed roughly over the present-day Great Plains of ...

of North America.

History

Five-chambered fruit from the Cretaceous

Dakota Sandstone The Dakota is a sedimentary rock, sedimentary geologic unit name of Formation (stratigraphy), formation and Group (stratigraphy), group rank in Midwestern North America. The Dakota units are generally composed of sandstones, mudstones, clays, and ...

were monographed as early as 1874 by Leo Lesquereux for the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

. In 1892, Lesquereux published one such fossil as ''Carpites cordiformis''. James Basinger and David Dilcher (1984) re-examined flower fossils from the Dakota Formation in

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

and published them as the "Rose Creek flower", one of the earliest recorded bisexual flowers, after the Rose Creek Pit of the Dakota Formation. In 2018, "Rose Creek flower specimens" were again re-examined and renamed ''Dakotanthus cordiformis'' with a noted similarity to the extant family

Quillajaceae Quillajaceae, the soapbark family, is a family of flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'contain ...

References

Cretaceous life of North America Cretaceous plants Cenomanian life Fabales genera Quillajaceae Prehistoric angiosperms {{cretaceous-plant-stub