Palaeoaldrovanda splendens is an extinct

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

 species of carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic...

. It is thought to be the evolutionary ancestor of species in the genus Aldrovanda

Aldrovanda

Aldrovanda is a genus of carnivorous plants encompassing one extant species and numerous extinct taxa. The genus is named in honor of the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, the founder of the Botanical Garden of Bologna, Orto Botanico dell'Università di Bologna.The extinct species are known...

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P. splendens is only known from seed fragments found in the late Turonian

Turonian

The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.3 ± 1 Ma...

-Santonian

Santonian

The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 85.8 ± 0.7 mya and 83.5 ± 0.7 mya...

Klikov beds of the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. They represent the second oldest known remains of a carnivorous plant, after Archaeamphora longicervia

Archaeamphora longicervia

Archaeamphora longicervia is an extinct species of pitcher plant bearing close affinities to extant members of the family Sarraceniaceae. Fossil material assigned to this taxon originates from the Yixian Formation of northeastern China, dated to the Early Cretaceous .Archaeamphora longicervia is...

, a pitcher plant

Pitcher plant

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. It has been widely assumed that the various sorts of pitfall trap evolved from rolled leaves, with selection pressure favouring more deeply cupped leaves over...

 from the Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...

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Anderson et al. (2005) note that "synapomorphic characters that link the fossils seeds [of P. splendens] to extant Aldrovanda include hard testa with an outer epidermis of palisade cells and with a smooth, strongly reflecting surface, short micropylar neck, and extruding, pointed chalazal area".