''Palaeoaldrovanda splendens'' is a

form taxon Form classification is the classification of organisms based on their morphology, which does not necessarily reflect their biological relationships. Form classification, generally restricted to palaeontology, reflects uncertainty; the goal of s ...

of uncertain identity. It was for a long time thought to be an extinct angiosperm allied to the carnivorous plant genus ''

Aldrovanda ''Aldrovanda'' is a genus of carnivorous plants encompassing one extant species (''Aldrovanda vesiculosa'', the waterwheel plant) and numerous extinct taxa. The genus is named in honor of the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the founder of ...

''. Cajsa Lisa Anderson ''et al.'' (2005) wrote: "synapomorphic characters that link the fossils seeds f ''P. splendens''to extant ''Aldrovanda'' include hard testa with an outer epidermis of

palisade cell Palisade cells are plant cells located on the leaves, right below the epidermis and cuticle that is the outermost layer of the leaf. In simpler terms, they are known as leaf cells. Palisade means "stake" in latin, they are vertically elongated an ...

s and with a smooth, strongly reflecting surface, short micropylar neck, and extruding, pointed chalazal area". However, research published by Zuzana Heřmanová and Jiří Kvaček in 2010 has cast doubt on this hypothesis. These authors identified the fossilised remains of ''Palaeoaldrovanda'' as

insect egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s, writing:Heřmanová, Zuzana & Jiří Kvaček 2010
Late Cretaceous ''Palaeoaldrovanda'', not seeds of a carnivorous plant, but eggs of an insect
. ''Journal of the National Museum'' (Prague), Natural History Series, 179(9): 105–118.

''Palaeoaldrovanda'' is not a seed with a basic anatropical and bitegmic organisation; there is no evidence of a
raphe Raphe (; from Greek ῥαφή, "seam"Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.) has several diffe ...
, and the wall structure is simple. ''Palaeoaldrovanda'' does not show a clearly pronounced micropyle or
chalaza The chalaza (; from Greek "hailstone"; plural ''chalazas'' or ''chalazae'', ) is a structure inside bird eggs and plant ovules. It attaches or suspends the yolk or nucellus within the larger structure. In animals In the eggs of most birds (n ...
. ..Our new interpretation of ''Palaeoaldrovanda'' significantly influences the current view of the family Droseraceae. It is at least possible that this family did not evolve until the
Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
. It may also influence the hypotheses of the first unequivocal appearance of carnivorous plants in general.

''Palaeoaldrovanda'' is only known from fossils of the late

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded b ...

–

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. ...

Klikov beds of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

.Knobloch, E. & D.H. Mai 1986. Monographie der Früchte und Samen in der Kreide von Mitteleuropa. ''Rozpravy ústredního ústavu geologickénho Praha'' 47: 1–219. These fossils represent the second oldest reported remains of a carnivorous plant, after '' Archaeamphora longicervia'', which was described as a

pitcher plant Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher p ...

from the Early CretaceousLi, H. 2005. ''Acta Botanica Gallica'' 152(2): 227–234. (though its identity has also been questioned).McPherson, S., A. Wistuba, A. Fleischmann & J. Nerz 2011. '' Sarraceniaceae of South America''. Redfern Natural History Productions Ltd., Poole.

References

Droseraceae Extinct carnivorous plants Late Cretaceous plants Cretaceous angiosperms Prehistoric angiosperm genera {{Droseraceae-stub