130-million-year-old fossil flower may solve Darwin’s ‘disgusting mystery’

A new discovery suggests that flowering plants evolved tens of millions of years earlier than scientists thought.

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Researchers have discovered a fossil of the oldest flower bud in history in China. He is 130 million years old. Charles Darwin tried to find an answer to the question: how and when flowering or angiosperms appeared and called it “a disgusting mystery.” This flower may finally unravel this mystery, because, according to scientists, it is a transitional evolutionary stage in the development of these plants. Daily Mail.

Scientists managed to find a petrified flower in China, which left traces of a stem and a bud in the ancient rock. This flower was named Florigerminis jurassica. The fossil suggests that flowering or angiosperms lived during the Jurassic period (201.3 to 145 million years ago). Angiosperms are plants that have flowers and produce seeds.

The Disgusting Mystery of Darwin

The oldest flower in history, found in sediments over 164 million years old. This plant may be a transitional stage in the evolution of angiosperms and will finally unravel the “disgusting mystery” of Charles Darwin. The famous scientist first mentioned this “secret” in a letter to his friend, botanist Joseph Hooker in 1879.

“The rapid development, as far as we can judge, of all higher plants in recent geological time is a disgusting mystery,” wrote Darwin.

ancient flowering plants

Flowering plants appeared on Earth relatively recently, and then quickly evolved, acquiring more and more new shapes and colors. Scientists have discovered many fossils of ancient plants over the past few years, but experts say they were not true angiosperms. These are the plants that have been named Euanthus and Nanjinganthus and are from the Jurassic.

However, the petrified flower bud of Florigerminis jurassica most closely matches the criteria for flowering plants. A study published in the Geological Society, London, Special Publications says the plant was preserved in a yellowish rock composed of volcanic ash that was ejected during the eruption.

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“The unexpected appearance of flowers such as Florigerminis, Euanthus and Nanjinganthus means that related theories of angiosperm evolution lack the predictability needed for scientific theory,” the study says.

Focus already wrote that a group of geneticists from Germany and the USA refuted one of Darwin’s theories.

We also remind you of 7 facts about Charles Darwinabout which he wrote Focus, among which the fact that the scientist left the university, ate owls and received a mountain as a gift.

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