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The deepening of Darwin's abominable mystery

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, Article number: 0169 (2017) Cite this article

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To the Editor — In 1879 in a private letter to Joseph Hooker, Charles Darwin grumbled1: “The rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery.” Although this abominable mystery is often cited today, and sometimes declared solved, few realize that the mystery is deeper today than it was for Darwin. Today, no pre-Cretaceous angiosperm fossils are universally recognized2. In contrast, as I show below, Darwin and his contemporaries believed that pre-Cretaceous monocotyledonous angiosperm fossils did exist.

In his 1879 letter, Darwin was commenting on a paper by John Ball3, which described the plant fossil record using the (now archaic) terms ‘endogen’ for monocotyledon and ‘higher exogen’ for dicotyledon. Ball wrote: “During the secondary period endogens are found in fossil deposits, few in number and obscure in their affinities; but the appearance of the higher type of exogenous plants is not disclosed by direct evidence until about the middle of the Cretaceous period.”

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References

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  1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3DS, UK

    Richard J. A. Buggs

  2. Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

    Richard J. A. Buggs

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  1. Richard J. A. Buggs
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Correspondence to Richard J. A. Buggs.

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Buggs, R. The deepening of Darwin's abominable mystery. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 0169 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0169

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