Flowers
Is Darwin’s “abominable mystery” of flowers partly solved by a recent discovery?
The beautifully-preserved fossil found in amber from 99 million years ago belongs to the large, diverse Pentepetalae clade: Together with contemporaneous flowers and fruits, the researchers say, Lijinganthus indicates that core eudicots flourished on Earth about 100 million years ago, although did not dominate vegetation until about 20 million years later, the mid-Cretaceous. “Various molecular clocks indicate that angiosperms and eudicots have a significantly earlier origin than the earliest fossil record indicates,” the authors write.Nick Carne, “Darwin’s ‘abominable mystery’ more apparent than real” at Cosmos A perfect flower in a mid-Cretaceous (early Cenomanian) Myanmar amber is described as Lijinganthus revoluta gen. et sp. nov. The fossil flower is actinomorphic and pentamerous, including calyx, corolla, stamens, and gynoecium. The sepals are Read More ›