Aptian Stage

The Aptian (125–113 Ma) is the fifth age of the Early Cretaceous, occurring after the Barremian, and before the Albian.

What happened during this time?

Angiosperms spread to the under-story floodplains.
One of earliest known angiosperms, Archaefructus appears
- Herbaceous, aquatic plant (125 Ma)
- Carpels and stamens produced on elongate stem
  - The structures lack petals or sepals
  - Stamens proximal; carpals distal
  - Is the elongate stem in Archaefructus the receptacle of a single flower (with many carpals/stamens), or an inflorescence with many apetalous flowers?
- Depending on the above answer, Archaefructus may not be basal within angiosperms
  - Close to Nymphaeales or basal eudicots.
Potomacapnos apeleutheron, a eudicot from the Aptian, is also one of the oldest angiosperms (Jud and Hickey 2013)
- The fossil most closely resembles a modern subfamily of poppies, called the Fumarioideae
- The eudicots are thought to be more derived, which may push back the origin of angiosperms to the very beginning of the Cretaceous
Earliest evidence of filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae) from ~120 Ma (Herrera et al. 2017)