When Flowers First Bloomed
Pine Cone
© Steven J. Baskauf,
Vanderbilt University
You might recognize many of the plants around you: ginkgos and members of the pine-tree family line the water's edge. Small ferns grow among the trees. But where are all the flowers? The Liaoning forest of 130 million years ago offers us a glimpse of the world just before flowering plants became common.
Daisy
© Steven J. Baskauf,
Vanderbilt University
Magnolia
© Steven J. Baskauf,
Vanderbilt University
Today, plants with flowers—called angiosperms—dominate the landscape. Around 80 percent of green plants alive today, from oak trees to grass, are flowering plants. In all of these plants, flowers are part of the reproductive system. But 130 million years ago, flowering plants were rare. Most plants reproduced with spores, found today on ferns, or with seeds and cones, found today on pine trees. The plant fossils found in Liaoning, China, show evidence of plants with spores or seeds—and perhaps one of the first flowering plants.
Puzzling Plants
When paleontologists discover a dinosaur leg bone, they can usually estimate how large the animal was. But when scientists uncover a fossilized leaf, it's difficult to know the size of the whole plant. The leaves on a towering oak tree are small, while those on the stem of a sunflower are much larger. To re-create ancient plants, researchers typically turn to modern plants for clues on size and appearance. Examine the leaf shown here. How big do you think the plant was?
This leaf is from an extinct plant called a bennettite. With no close relatives alive today to suggest what the plants looked like, researchers rely on fossils and distantly related plants to re-create bennettites, which were probably medium-size shrubs.
First Flower?
Most plants today have flowers. But when did flowers first evolve? Researchers have found an ancient plant in Liaoning, Archaefructus, that has very small, simple flowers and could be one of the first flowering plants. Archaefructus lived around 130 million years ago and probably grew in or near the water. Look for this plant in the water near the edge of the pond.
