September 14, 2007
1 min read
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Orchids bloomed while dinosaurs roamed, according to a study of the first fossilized orchid—a clutch of pollen stuck to the tail of a now extinct bee and preserved in amber for the last 15 million to 20 million years.
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Orchids bloomed while dinosaurs roamed, according to a study of the first fossilized orchid—a clutch of pollen stuck to the tail of a now extinct bee and preserved in amber for the last 15 million to 20 million years. The most recent common ancestor of orchids must have lived some 76 million to 84 million years ago, making the prized flower much older than researchers thought, according to a recent paper in Nature.
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