What is Archaefructus?
{{italictitle}} {{Taxobox | fossil_range = [[Early Cretaceous]] {{fossilrange|125}} | image = Archaefructus liaoningensis.jpg | image_caption = ''Archaefructus liaoningensis'' - a photograph of a facsimile of the fossil | regnum = [[Plantae]] | unranked_divisio = [[Angiosperms]] | classis = ''[[incertae sedis]]'' | familia = '''Archaefructaceae''' | familia_authority = [[Ge Sun|Sun]], [[Qiang Ji|Ji]], [[David L. Dilcher|Dilcher]], [[Shaoling Zheng|Zheng]], [[Kevin C. Nixon|Nixon]] & [[Xinfu Wang|Wang]] | genus = '''''Archaefructus''''' | genus_authority = [[Ge Sun|Sun]], [[David L. Dilcher|Dilcher]], [[Shaoling Zheng|Zheng]] & [[Zhekun Zhou|Zhou]] | subdivision_ranks = [[Species]] | subdivision = ''[[Archaefructus eoflora]]''<br/> ''[[Archaefructus liaoningensis]]''<br/> ''[[Archaefructus sinensis]]'' }} '''''Archaefructus''''' is an [[extinct]] [[genus]] of [[herbaceous]] aquatic [[seed plant]]s. Its [[fossils]] come from the [[Yixian Formation]] in northeastern [[China]], about 125 million years ago in the early [[Cretaceous]]. ''Archaefructus'' is the earliest known [[genus]] of [[flowering plant]]s.<ref name=Sun/> It lacks [[sepal]]s and [[petal]]s. Its reproductive organs, [[carpel]]s and [[stamen]]s, are produced on an elongate stem rather than condensed into a [[flower]] as in modern [[angiosperm]]s. '''Archaefructaceae''' has been proposed as a new basal [[flowering plant|angiosperm]] family.<ref name=Sun>Sun G. ''et al'' 2002. [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/5569/899?ck=nck&siteid=sci&ijkey=8dZ6zTqF606ps&keytype=ref Archaefructaceae, a new basal Angiosperm family]. ''Science'' '''296'''(5569): 899–904.</ref> An alternate interpretation of the same fossil has the long stem as an [[inflorescence]] rather than a flower, with staminate (male) flowers below and pistillate (female) flower above.<ref>Friis E.M. ''et al'' 2003. ''Archaefructus'' – Angiosperm precursor or specialized early angiosperm? ''Trends in Plant Sciences'' '''8''': 369–373.</ref> The discovery of ''Archaefructus