A newly discovered fossilized flower in China's Nanjing Province might reshape our current understanding of the evolution of flowers, by pushing back the appearance of flowering plants back as far as the Early Jurassic Period, according to a report by Xinhua Daily News on Wednesday.

 

《新华日报》周三发表一篇报道，南京省一块新发现的花朵化石可能重新改写我们对于花朵进化的认识，将花朵的出现向前推进到侏罗纪早期。
 

 

The plant, called Nanjinganthus, dates back to more than 174 million years ago, making it the oldest known flower by almost 50 million years. The fossil was found by researchers after a long period of field exploration. Since the first fossilized flower was discovered in Nanjing in early 2016, more than 300 fossil flowers have been discovered.

 

The abundance of specimens¹ has allowed researchers to dissect² some of the fossil flowers. The appearance of a cup-like receptacle, ovarian roof, and enclosed ovules in the Nanjinganthus is consistent with the researcher's inference that the Nanjinganthus was a flowering plant.

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