A Look At Flowers Millions of Years Ago

Flowering plants, which arose approximately 140 million years ago, are the most diverse group of plants on Earth. The evolution of these plants and why so diverse is a biology mystery. OEB Ph.D. student, Kristel Schoonderwoerd (Friedman Lab) is part of an international effort, the eFLOWER Project, which aims to reconstruct the evolution of flowers. The study in Nature Communications, reveals insight into the early evolution of flowers and the major patterns found across all living flowering plants.

Image: Copyright: 3-D model from eFLOWER, Hervé Sauquet/Jürg Schönenberger (study co-authors)