Fossils reveal flowers originated 50 million years earlier than previously thought

Angiosperms (flowering plants) were thought to have a history of no more than 130 million years. But the new discovery in the vicinity of Nanjing, China showing many fossil specimens of a flower called Nanjinganthus from the Early Jurassic period suggests that flowers originated 50 million years earlier than previously thought.

Reference: FU Qiang et al., 2018, An unexpected noncarpellate epigynous flower from the Jurassic of China. eLife, 7:e38827, DOI: http://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38827