Flowering Plants May Have Evolved In 25-75 Million Years Earlier

GreenTracker| Previous studies on the evolution of flowering plants believe that they first arose 140 to 190 million years ago. A new paper to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences argues that flowering plants (angiosperms) actually appeared 25 to 75 million years earlier.

“If you just looked at the fossil record, you would say that angiosperms originated in the early Cretaceous or late Jurassic,” said Michael Donoghue of Yale University. “Most molecular divergence times have shown that they might be older than that,” added Yale biologist Jeremy Beaulieu. “But we actually find that they might be Triassic in origin,” said Beaulieu. “No one has found a result like that before.”

The evolution of insects like bees and flies are already dated in this earlier period. Modern insects like bees and wasps rely on flowers for nectar and pollen. Confirmation of flowers earlier existence on earth helps explain the evolution of insects