Yesterday I was contacted by a journalist to give a comment on a paper that’s just been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution:

Silvestro, D., Bacon, C.D., Ding, W. et al. (2021) Fossil data support a pre-Cretaceous origin of flowering plants. Nature Ecology and Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01387-8

I was happy to do so as it adds a fascinating twist to a long-standing interest of mine: when did the angiosperms evolve and what role did pollinators play in that evolution?

In the end they didn’t use the text that I sent back to them, so I thought that I’d share it on the blog:

The evolution of the angiosperms was arguably one of the most significant events in the history of life on Earth, but the timing of the origin of this group of plants remains a hotly debated topic, with conflicting evidence coming from the fossil record and molecular biology. This important new study has developed a novel statistical approach to reconcile these two lines of evidence, and comes down firmly on the side of the molecular evidence to conclude that angiosperms originated much earlier than the fossil record suggests. This will be sure to stir up further debate that can only be resolved by finding well preserved and accurately interpreted fossils of an appropriate age. In the future I would like to see Silvestro et al.’s technique applied to the major groups of pollinators such as bees and wasps (Hymenoptera) and butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) where there is likewise a discrepancy between what the fossils and DNA are telling us. Pollinators have had a profound influence on angiosperm evolution and we might expect a close correlation between the origin and subsequent diversification of these different groups of organisms. This would certainly support the findings from Silvestro et al.’s study. It’s an exciting time for researchers in this field: a world without flowers and pollinators would look very different