Flowering plants are so ubiquitous today that one can hardly imagine life without them, but the first dinosaurs lived in a world without flowers.
The centerpiece of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, in Stockholm, is probably the Fossils and Evolution hall, in which an enormous Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton seems to yawn over crowds of starstruck schoolchildren. Nearby, tourists marvel at a triceratops skull and a velociraptor model. These iconic dinosaurs evolved during the late-Cretaceous epoch and went extinct about sixty-six million years ago, around the time that an asteroid smashed into the planet.
Wildfires often burn plants to ash, but where the oxygen supply is limited—for example, in the middle of a tree trunk or beneath the litter of the forest floor—it also has the power to preserve. Heat vaporizes the moisture in plant tissue and may leave behind a black carbon skeleton, which can survive in geological strata for tens of millions of years.
Taking up a sieve, Friis found thousands of Cenozoic brown-coal fruits and seeds in boreholes and quarries in Denmark. Among these relatively recent fossils, from an era when angiosperms were already dominant, she found the occasional fragment of a flower. But, at the time, paleobotanists believed that flower fossils would not be found in older sediments.
Next, Friis tried to find out how deep into the Cretaceous the fossil record of flowers would go. With Crane and Pedersen, she set out for Maryland and Virginia, where paleobotanists had found angiosperm pollen and leaves from the early Cretaceous. In riverbanks and gravel pits, they found fossilized charcoal flowers dating back to about a hundred and twenty million years ago.
Friis scoured the garden’s gravel pathways in search of broadleaf plantains, a common leafy weed that grows around a green, flower-coated spike. As she talked about the plant’s anatomy, I picked up a wistful note in her voice: she was not giving me a botany lesson, but rather remembering a childhood game. “You can pull the leaves out and count the vascular bundles to see how many lovers you will have,” she said.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
I grew my own wedding flowers — it was stressful, but I saved thousands“My bridesmaids and I made all the bouquets on the morning of the wedding,” Emma Tamlin said. “It took an hour to cut and two hours to make the vases.”
Baca lebih lajut »
Fossil Fuel Industry Plans To Hijack Offshore Wind In Gulf Of MexicoAs the Biden administration gets ready to push offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico, fossil fuel companies wonder what's in it for them.
Baca lebih lajut »
Power failures amplify calls for utility to rethink gasA federal utility’s decision to resort to rolling blackouts after coal and natural gas units went offline during dangerously cold conditions has intensified questions about the Tennessee Valley Authority's recent decision to double down on fossil fuels. TVA experienced its highest ever winter peak-power demand on Dec. 23 as an arctic blast brought blinding blizzards, freezing rain and frigid cold from Maine to Seattle. The Tennessee Valley Authority said in an email that a combination of high winds and freezing temperatures caused its coal-burning Cumberland Fossil Plant to go offline at one point when critical instrumentation froze up.
Baca lebih lajut »
Miley Cyrus Ushers in 2023 With New Song AnnouncementMiley Cyrus has teased upcoming single 'Flowers' while hosting her 'New Year's Eve Party' live on NBC
Baca lebih lajut »
Miley Cyrus Releasing New Music on Ex-Husband Liam Hemsworth's Birthday - E! OnlineThree years after finalizing her divorce from Liam Hemsworth, Miley Cyrus teased her new single, 'Flowers' on Instagram, sharing a short portion of the lyrics: 'I can love me better than you can.'
Baca lebih lajut »
Power failures amplify calls for utility to rethink gasA federal utility’s decision to resort to rolling blackouts after coal and natural gas units went offline during dangerously cold conditions has intensified questions about the Tennessee Valley Authority's recent decision to double down on fossil fuels.
Baca lebih lajut »