Fossil flowers with Normapolles pollen from the Upper Cretaceous of southeastern North America

Three types of fossil flowers and fruits are described from the upper Santo nian (Upper Cretaceous) Buffalo Creek Member of the Gaillard Formation in c entral Georgia, USA. The pollen of each of these new types is known from th e palynological record and can be assigned to the: Normapolles group, a mor phologically diverse complex of angiosperm pollen characteristic of the Upp er Cretaceous of eastern North America and Europe. The fossils presented he re are the first known Normapolles-producing floral structures to be descri bed from Noah America. One type is similar to the European species Caryanth us knoblochii whereas a second (Bedellia pusilla Sims et al., gen. et sp. n ov.) is established as a new genus and species. The third flower type is de scribed but not named due to lack of sufficient morphological detail. Toget her, the North American and European genera support previous interpretation s that some members of the Normapolles complex are closely related to famil ies within the 'higher' hamamelids (especially Juglandaceae, Rhoipteleaceae , Myricaceae, and Betulaceae). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.