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Flowers bloomed when the first dinosaurs

roamed the Earth - 100-MILLION years

earlier than previously thought Flowering plants became dominant 90 million years ago

but until now scientists were unsure when plants, known as

angiosperms, originated

University of Zrich researchers found ancient pollengrains with features that are usually seen in flowering

plants in 245-million-year-old fossils

Their findings suggest the origin of flowering plants isrooted much deeper than originally thought

BySarah Griffiths

Newly discovered fossils hint that flowers could have bloomed at a time when

the first dinosaurs walked the Earth, Swiss scientists have said.

The discovery dates seed-producing and flowering plants - known as

angiosperms - to around 100 million years earlier than palaeontologists

previously thought.

Angiosperms became the dominant plants some 90 million years ago, when

dinosaurs were still very much alive, but scientists were not sure exactly when

the plants originated.

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Scientists have unearthed 245-million-year-old pollen grains (examples shown here), with tinyfeatures typically that are seen in flowering plants, from samples taken in Switzerland

WHAT ARE ANGIOSPERMS?

Flowering plants called angiosperms are the most diverse group of landplants.

Angiosperms are seed-producing plants. Their characteristics include flowers, endosperm within the seeds, and the

production of fruits that contain the seeds.

Etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within anenclosure - they are fruiting plants, although more commonly referred to

as flowering plants.

They diversified enormously during the Lower Cretaceous and becamewidespread around 120 million years ago, but replaced older conifers asthe dominant trees only around 60 to 100-million-years-ago.

Today's flowering plants evolved from relative of seed-producing plants that did

not flower, including conifers and cycads.

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Peter Hochuli, a paleobotanist at the University of Zrich's Paleontological

Institute and Museum, toldLiveSciencethat flowering plants were the final

group of plants to evolve in Earth's history.

'They are an extremely successful group on which all terrestrial ecosystems

today depend, including the existence of humanity,' he said.

Scientists have discovered ancient pollen grains with features that are usually

seen in flowering plants.

The 245-million-year-old fossils were found in two samples taken from northern

Switzerland and are approximately the same age as the earliest known dinosaur

in the Middle Triassic period.

Newly discovered fossils hint that flowers could have bloomed at a time when the first dinosaurs,such as Nyasasaurus parringtoni (illustrated) walked the Earth, Swiss scientists said

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Pollen grains are robust and plentiful, which makes then easier to spot in fossil records than

fragile leaves and flowers. An unrelated fossil of buttercups (left) and early aquatic angiosperm

(right) is pictured

Dr Hochuli said: 'Our findings suggest that the origin of flowering plants is

rooted much deeper than originally thought.'

Pollen grains are robust and plentiful, which makes then easier to spot in the

fossil record than fragile leaves and flowers, he said.

The researchers analysed the structure of these grains to publish their study in

thejournal Frontiers in Plant Science and believe they were pollinated bybeetles, as bees did not evolve until around 100 million years later.

The fossils yielded six different kinds of pollen, hinting that ancient flowers

were diverse, while scientists said they have seen similar grains in Switzerland

and the Barents Sea, located north of Scandinavia.

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In the Middle Triassic, both the regions were located in the subtropics but

modern Switzerland was much drier than its more northern counterpart,

suggesting the plants adapted to different environments.

While the fossil record of angiosperms dates back 140 million years, evenCharles Darwin was unsure when they first originated - calling it an 'abominablemystery'.

Now, the plot thickens as the fossils demonstrate that the flowering plants were

in existence 100 million years sooner than imagined, although the longer period

of time might explain how they came to diversity and spread in the age of the

dinosaurs.

However, the fossils do not shed any more light on the ancestors of

angiosperms, which have baffled scientists who are unsure how they came toexist.

Dr Hochuli said no direct ancestors of angiosperms have been identified.

'Some groups of plants are suspected to be closely related. But the evidence is

weak and most of these groups are thought to be too specialised to be at the baseof the flowering plants,' he said.

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