title: Early Cretaceous Archaeamphora is not a carnivorous angiosperm.
abstract: Archaeamphora longicervia H. Q. Li was described as an herbaceous, Sarraceniaceae-like pitcher plant from the mid Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province, northeastern China. Here, a re-investigation of A. longicervia specimens from the Yixian Formation provides new insights into its identity and the morphology of pitcher plants claimed by Li. We demonstrate that putative pitchers of Archaeamphora are insect-induced leaf galls that consist of three components: (1) an innermost larval chamber; (2) an intermediate zone of nutritive tissue; and (3) an outermost wall of sclerenchyma. Archaeamphora is not a carnivorous, Sarraceniaceae-like angiosperm, but represents insect-galled leaves of the previously reported gymnosperm Liaoningocladus boii G. Sun et al. from the Yixian Formation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: William Oki
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, Indiana University , Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: David Leonard
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Dilcher
authors.affiliation: Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History , Washington, DC, USA ; Department of Entomology and BEES Program, University of Maryland , College Park, MD, USA ; College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Conrad C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Labandeira
authors.affiliation: Paleontological Institute, Shenyang Normal University , Shenyang, China.
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Botanische Staatssammlung München , Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fleischmann
keywords: Archaeamphora longicervia; Early Cretaceous; Liaoningocladus boii; Sarraceniaceae; Yixian Formation; angiosperm; carnivorous plant; leaf gall