Fossil history of flowering plants

The fossil history of flowering plants records the development of flowers and other distinctive structures of the angiosperms, now the dominant group of plants on land. The history is controversial as flowering plants appear in great diversity in the Cretaceous, with scanty and debatable records before that, creating a puzzle for evolutionary biologists that Charles Darwin named an "abominable mystery". Nonetheless, in April 2024, scientists reported an overview of the origin and development of flowering plants over the years based on extensive genetic studies.^[1]^[2]

^ Greenwood, Veronique (11 May 2024). "A New Tree of Flowering Plants? For Spring? Groundbreaking. - By sequencing an enormous amount of data, a group of hundreds of researchers has gained new insights into how flowers evolved on Earth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
^ Zuntini, Alexandre R.; et al. (24 April 2024). "Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms". Nature. 629 (8013): 843–850. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07324-0. hdl:10261/359084. PMC 11111409. PMID 38658746.

[NYT-20240511-1] Greenwood, Veronique (11 May 2024). "A New Tree of Flowering Plants? For Spring? Groundbreaking. - By sequencing an enormous amount of data, a group of hundreds of researchers has gained new insights into how flowers evolved on Earth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2024.

[NAT-20240424-2] Zuntini, Alexandre R.; et al. (24 April 2024). "Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms". Nature. 629 (8013): 843–850. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07324-0. hdl:10261/359084. PMC 11111409. PMID 38658746.

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