Researchers from the University of Zurich, Switzerland discovered flower-like pollens that are more than 100 million years older than the first fossilized pollen of flowers found 140 million years ago.
Early scientists believed that the flowering plants first appeared during the Cretaceous period, some 140 million years ago, based on the most ancient flower fossil of pollen grains. The evolution theory suggests that modern flowers came from extinct conifers, ginkgos, cycads, and seed ferns. However, this new discovery is bound to change that belief as they have evidence that flowers have existed as early as the Triassic period.
The Triassic period is the time when dinosaurs were believed to have inhabited Earth. This was between 252 to 247 million years ago. The new flower-like fossil suggests that flowers may have coexisted with dinosaurs.
The discovery may also end the debate about the real age of flowers in Earth as scientists based it on molecular computations. The last computation noted that it is 140 million years ago.
Because very ancient fossils did not exist for flowering plants, molecular estimates could not be “anchored.” ”That is why the present finding of flower-like pollen from the Triassic is significant,” said Professor Peter Hochuli, co-author of the study, to a news release.
Hochuli and Susanne Feist-Burkhardt from Paleontological Institute and Museum, University of Zürich, examined two drilling cores from Weiach and Leuggern in northern Switzerland, in which they discovered pollen grains quite similar to fossilized pollen grains from the earliest known flowering plants. They used Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy to get high-resolution images across three dimensions of six different types of pollen. They found the fossil near the same site the first ancient flower was found.
"We believe that even highly cautious scientists will now be convinced that flowering plants evolved long before the Cretaceous,” said Hochuli.
The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.
