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Ancient seeds spill secrets about the evolution of flowering plants

The origin and rapid diversification of flowering plants is a long-standing “abominable mystery”, as Charles Darwin put it. Part of the puzzle – the origin of the protective covering of flowering-plant seeds – is nearing resolution.
  1. Douglas E. Soltis

    1. Douglas E. Soltis is at the Florida Museum of Natural History and in the Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.

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One of the landmark events in evolution is the appearance of flowering plants, termed angiosperms. Writing in Nature, Shi et al.1 describe fossil evidence that sheds light on a long-standing mystery about seed evolution.

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Nature 594, 185-186 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01347-7

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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