Ancient Rhamnaceae flowers impute an origin for flowering plants exceeding 250-million-years ago

Summary: Setting the molecular clock to newly described 100-million-year-old flowering shoots of Phylica in Burmese amber enabled us to recalibrate the phylogenetic history of Rhamnaceae. We traced its origin to ∼260 million years ago (Ma) that can explain its migration within and beyond Gondwana si...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tianhua He, Byron B. Lamont
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2022-07-01
Series:iScience
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004222009142
Description
Summary:Summary: Setting the molecular clock to newly described 100-million-year-old flowering shoots of Phylica in Burmese amber enabled us to recalibrate the phylogenetic history of Rhamnaceae. We traced its origin to ∼260 million years ago (Ma) that can explain its migration within and beyond Gondwana since that time and implies an origin for flowering plants that stretches well beyond 290 Ma. Ancestral trait assignments also revealed that hard-seededness, fire-proneness, and to a lesser extent, heat-released seed dormancy, have a similarly long history in this clade.
ISSN:2589-0042