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The fossil history of flowering plants records the development of flowers and other distinctive structures of the angiosperms, now the dominant group of plants on land.The history is controversial as flowering plants appear in great diversity in the Cretaceous, with scanty and debatable records before that, creating a puzzle for evolutionary biologists that Charles Darwin named an "abominable ...
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (/ ˌ æ n dʒ i ə ˈ s p ər m iː /). [ 5 ] [ 6 ] The term 'angiosperm' is derived from the Greek words ἀγγεῖον / angeion ('container, vessel') and σπέρμα / sperma ('seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit.
Flower of Liriodendron tulipifera, a Mesangiosperm. Mesangiospermae is a clade that contains the majority of flowering plants (angiosperms). Mesangiosperms are therefore known as the core angiosperms, in contrast to the three orders of earlier-diverging species known as the basal angiosperms: Nymphaeales (including water lilies), Austrobaileyales (including star anise), and Amborellales.
The Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution (abbreviated KTR), also known as the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution (ATR) by authors who consider it to have lasted into the Palaeogene, [1] describes the intense floral diversification of flowering plants (angiosperms) and the coevolution of pollinating insects, as well as the subsequent faunal radiation of frugivorous, nectarivorous and insectivorous ...
Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms, spread during this period, although they did not become predominant until near the end of the period (Campanian age). [18] Their evolution was aided by the appearance of bees; in fact angiosperms and insects are a good example of coevolution.
The main function of a flower is reproduction, which, before the evolution of the flower and angiosperms, was the job of microsporophylls and megasporophylls. A flower can be considered a powerful evolutionary innovation, because its presence allowed the plant world to access new means and mechanisms for reproduction. [citation needed]
19th-century illustration. Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis / ˌ k ɒ n v ə ˈ l ɛər i ə m ə ˈ dʒ eɪ l ɪ s /), [2] sometimes written lily-of-the-valley, [3] is a woodland flowering plant with sweetly scented, pendent, bell-shaped white flowers borne in sprays in spring.
Although at one time considered angiosperms because of their berry-like cupules, [5] that hypothesis was later disproven. [6] Nevertheless, some authorities consider them likely ancestors or close relatives of angiosperms. [7] The origin of angiosperms remains unclear, and they cannot be linked with any known seed plants groups with certainty.