From the peony, with its showy blooms, to the modestly endowed daisy, all flowering plants share a common ancestor. But exactly how and when this group originated has long puzzled scientists. The earliest known flowering plant fossils date to around 130 million years ago, yet transitional fossils linking them to other ancient plants are unknown. Indeed, Charles Darwin himself dubbed the sudden appearance of the flowering plants in the fossil record "an abominable mystery." Now new research, described yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, suggests that these flora evolved more than 120 million years prior to the appearance of their earliest known fossil representatives.
Stanford University geochemist J. Michael Moldowan and his colleagues studied a compound known as oleanane, which is produced by many flowering plants as a defense against insects and microbial invaders. It is not, however, found in other seed plants such as pines and gingkoes. The team was able to retrieve oleanane molecules from oily rock deposits dating back to the Permian period, hundreds of millions of years ago. Specifically, they found the compound in sediments containing extinct plants called gigantopterids, making these the oldest known oleanane-producing seed plants. As such, they were probably among the earliest relatives of the flowering plants, team member David Winshop Taylor of Indiana University Southeast concludes.
Taylor adds that their findings hold even more significance in light of another recent discovery¿ancient gigantopterid fossils from China exhibiting leaves and stems similar to those of modern flowering plants.
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Add CommentPersonally i dont know if im being more amused by typing this or the fact that one of the people that is reading this is remarkably smarter than the one who posted this artical :)
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entirely new explanation?
A. Darwins Mystery Of Appearance Of Flowering Plants Explained
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713211621.htm
The researchers have consequently provided an entirely new explanation for what Charles Darwin considered to be one of the greatest mysteries with which he was confronted...
B. From "Life And Darwinism, Tomorrow's Comprehension"
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/112.page
On The Origin And Tasks Of Brain Cells, "what all these new cells are good for"
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/180/122.page#2822
Surprisingly...??? Human's genome continued survival mainly by modifying-controling its environment.
And AAAGAIN: For Nature genes are genes are genes. None are more or less important than the others. Genes and their take-offs, all Earth organisms, are temporary energy packages and the more of them there are the more enhanced is the biosphere, Earth's life, Earth's temporary storage of constrained energy. This is the origin, the archetype, of selected modes of survival.
C. Life is REALY simpler than they tell us in endless variations in AcademEnglish...
Dov Henis
(Comments From The 22nd Century)
Updated Life's Manifest May 2009
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14988&st=480&#entry412704
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/140/122.page#2321