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Angiosperm-Like Pollen and Afropollis from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) of the Germanic Basin
- Thread starter Aegle
- Start date
PowerfulMedicine
Rising Star
This would push back the emergence of angiosperms by many millions of years. The oldest known fossil of a flowering plant is Archaefructus from the early Cretaceous.
I have my doubts about this due to the lack of corroborating fossil evidence. But this does support the idea that angiosperm-like pollen evolved before flowers did.
There is also a hypothesis that angiosperms originally evolved in dry areas that were unconducive to preservation. And then there is the hypothesis that angiosperms had a long history of cryptic diversity that just wasn't preserved.
This paper supports both these ideas. I'll be interested to see if they ever find actual flower fossils from this long ago. The flower structure of Archaefructus was already extremely primitive. It's hard for me to imagine flowers getting much more primitive. So a Triassic flower fossil would imply a long period of evolutionary stasis.
I have my doubts about this due to the lack of corroborating fossil evidence. But this does support the idea that angiosperm-like pollen evolved before flowers did.
There is also a hypothesis that angiosperms originally evolved in dry areas that were unconducive to preservation. And then there is the hypothesis that angiosperms had a long history of cryptic diversity that just wasn't preserved.
This paper supports both these ideas. I'll be interested to see if they ever find actual flower fossils from this long ago. The flower structure of Archaefructus was already extremely primitive. It's hard for me to imagine flowers getting much more primitive. So a Triassic flower fossil would imply a long period of evolutionary stasis.