A 130-million-year-old flower bud fossil found in China may solve the ‘hate puzzle’ of Charles Darwin who wondered when and how the first flowering plants evolved.
The fossils include leafy twigs, physically attached fruit, and flower buds, indicating that angiosperms existed in the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago).
Angiosperms are plants that have flowers and produce seeds.
This specimen, the oldest, was found in a deposit that is more than 164 million years old and could be a phase transition that finally answers Darwin’s riddle.
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130 million-year-old flower bud fossil found in China could solve Charles Darwin’s ‘hate puzzle’ who wondered when and how the first flowering plants evolved
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The grim mystery of the famous naturalist first emerged in 1879.
In a letter to a close friend, botanist and explorer Dr. Joseph Hooker, he wrote: “The rapid evolution as far as we can assess all high -level plants in the age of modern geology is a disgusting mystery.”
Flowering plants appeared on Earth relatively recently on a geological timescale, then rapidly diversified into an explosion of color, shape, and form.
Several fossils that could provide answers have been found, but further investigation revealed that they were not true angiosperms.
In a letter to a close friend, botanist and explorer Dr. Joseph Hooker, Charles Darwin (photo) wrote: “The rapid evolution as far as we can assess all high-level plants in modern geological age is a grim conundrum.
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Image shows a map of the location of Inner Mongolia, China, where fossils were found
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However, the petrified flower buds, called Florigerminis jurassica, meet the criteria.
Ancient plants are described as having woody branches with books, the area on the stem where the buds are, the fruit is physically attached and the flower bud ends on the branch.
They also feature numerous tepals with smooth margins, and tightly circular centers.
“Although there are more than 100 flowering Nanjinganthus that represent the true existence of angiosperms in the Jurassic period, our current knowledge of early angiosperms is sparse,” he reads. study Published in The Geological Society, London, Special Publications.
“Here we report Florigerminis jurassica, a fossil plant that includes a physically related flower bud, fruit, and petiole, from the Jiulongshan Formation (Middle and Late Jurassic: >164 Ma) of Inner Mongolia, China.”
The fossils include leafy branches, physically attached fruit, and flower buds, which indicate the presence of angiosperms in the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago).
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The plant tissue is preserved in yellow rock made of volcanic ash ejected during the eruption, and the leaves have fallen off, leaving only their marks embedded in the sediment.
According to comparisons of Darwinism and exogroups, well-differentiated time was thought to be inherited and unpredictable for pioneer angiosperms, but this thinking is now being challenged by the well-differentiated oceans of the Jurassic Eoanthus. [discovered in 2016] dan Nanjinganthus [discovered in 2018],’ according to research.
Euanthus Jurrassic and Nanjinganthus had similar characteristics to modern flowering plants, but many experts argue that they were not true angiosperms.
The study reads that “the unexpected appearance of flowers such as Florigerminis, Euanthus and Nanjinganthus, all of which date back to the Jurassic period, means that theories relevant to the evolution of angiosperms lack the predictive power required for scientific theories.”
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