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Supposed Jurassic angiosperms lack pentamery, an important angiosperm-specific feature
Here, we comment on one such discovery in particular – the recently described compression fossil Nanjinganthus from the Early Jurassic of China (Fu et al., 2018), which has attracted considerable attention in the literature (Taylor & Li, 2018; Coiro et al., 2019; Rümpler & Theißen, 2019). We present new arguments that support a non‐angiosperm interpretation of this fossil, thus further contradicting the original interpretation. Nanjinganthus resembles another Jurassic fossil from China, Euanthus, described in an earlier paper (Liu & Wang, 2016). Both fossils were described by the original authors as pentamerous flowers (sometimes tetramerous in Nanjinganthus) with a double perianth, a unilocular ovary that is inferior (Nanjinganthus) or semi‐inferior (Euanthus), and a long style that is branched (Nanjinganthus) or unbranched (Euanthus) (Liu & Wang, 2016; Fu et al., 2018). Herendeen et al. (2017) disagreed with a floral interpretation for Euanthus and plausibly interpreted the fossil as a fragmentary ovuliferous conifer cone. Noting the similarity of the ‘sepals’ and ‘petals’ of Liu & Wang's (2016) fossil to the lowermost and successive ovuliferous scales of a conifer cone, respectively, they proposed that the naked axis of a fragmentary cone corresponds in shape and size to the structure interpreted by Liu & Wang (2016) as a style. According to Herendeen et al. (2017), the structures interpreted by Liu & Wang (2016) as receptacle, ovary and ovule correspond with the minute non‐ovuliferous scales and the detachment scar of a partially decomposed cone.