Biology / Main

🪴 What Happened? Around 130–140 million years ago, flowering plants suddenly diversified and spread rapidly. This event is referred to as the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. Charles Darwin called it an "abominable mystery" because of how quickly and widely they took over ecosystems. 🌍 How They Changed the World: Ecological Domination They now make up about 90% of all plant species and dominate most terrestrial ecosystems. New Food Webs Their flowers evolved to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds, creating new relationships and boosting biodiversity. Fruit & Seed Innovation Flowering plants produce fruits, which help disperse seeds via animals—hugely successful evolutionary strategy. Climate Impact Their fast-growing nature and broad leaves affect carbon cycles and even weather patterns by transpiring large amounts of water. Human Civilization Virtually all of our staple crops (wheat, rice, corn, etc.) are flowering plants. So, no flowers = no agriculture = no civilization as we know it.

Zimmer and her colleagues began looking in their shared data for groups of plants with common inherited traits, hoping eventually to identify a common ancestor to all flowering plants. Results to date indicate that the oldest living lineage, reaching back at least 130 million years, is Amborellaceae, a family that includes just one known species, Amborella trichopoda. Often described as a "living fossil," this small woody plant grows only on New Caledonia, a South Pacific island famous among botanists for its primeval flora.

Spring flowers are not only beautiful — they are essential for nature 🐝🦋. Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators rely on these early blossoms for food after winter. Thanks to flowers, ecosystems begin to thrive again 🌍💚.

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