Potomacapnos (lat.) Is an extinct monotypic genus of dicotyledonous plants , close to modern representatives of the order Ranunculales and represented by a single species † Potomacapnos apeleutheron . It was first isolated and described in 2013 by the American paleontologist Nathan Judah [2] .
| † Potomacapnos |
| Scientific classification |
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| Order : | Ranunculanae Takht. ex Reveal , 1993 |
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| International scientific name |
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Potomacapnos NA Jud , 2013 |
| Single view |
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† Potomacapnos apeleutheron |
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The generic name Potomacapnos is derived from the name of the Potomac group (by the name of the Potomac River ), the place of discovery, and from other Greek. καπνός "smoke", due to the similarity of the structure of leaves with the structure of leaves of plants of the subfamily Dymyankovye ( Fumarioideae ) of the poppy family ( Papaveraceae ). The specific name apeleutheron is from other Greek. ἀπελεύθερος “freedman”, in honor of the freed slaves who dug the Dutch Gap canal in 1864 [3] .
Potomacapnos apeleutheron is considered one of the oldest flowering plants grown in North America [4] . According to various sources, the age of the found sample is from 125 to 115 million years [5] [6] . The find is believed to shed light on many features of the evolution of flowering plants [2] [5] .
A plant sample dates from the Cretaceous . It was discovered in the old quarry of the XIX century ( Virginia , USA [2] ), among the breeds of the Potomac group. It was found that the species had some characteristics inherent in later flowering plants, especially in comparison with other flowering plants of the same period. A number of plant characteristics, in particular, its more developed leaf structure, allowed scientists to suggest that angiosperms evolved quite quickly in the short time period of the Early Cretaceous. It was previously believed that their development took place gradually [5] .
The species isolated as an independent genus was closely related to buttercups. The structure of the leaves was complex, and resembled it in modern representatives of the subfamily Dymyankovye ( Fumarioideae ) of the poppy family ( Papaveraceae ). Like most of the oldest flowering plants, the only known representative of the genus was a herbaceous plant [2] .