Flowering plants older than previously thought.

• Position: Fossils

The first intact fossil of a mature eudicot--a type of flowering plant whose membership includes buttercups, apple and maple trees, dandelions, and proteas--has been discovered by scientists from the U.S. and China. The 125,000,000-year-old find, described in Nature, reveals a remarkably developed species, leading researchers to argue for an earlier origin of the eudicots--and perhaps flowering plants in general.

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"This fossil opens up a new way of thinking about the evolution of some of the first flowering plants," says biologist David Dilcher, the Nature paper's American coauthor. "We are also beginning to understand that the explosive radiation of all flowering plants about 111,000,000 years ago has had a long history that began with the slower diversification of many families of eudicots over 10,000,000, perhaps 15,000,000, years earlier."

The fossil shows the above-ground portion of a mature plant. A single stem leads to five leaves, and one leads to a fully developed flower. The entire fossil is about 6.3 inches tall. Leaves are innervated by branching veins, and the small, cup-shaped flower has five petals.

"I think Leefructus mirus had attractive flowers to advertise for pollinators to visit," surmises Dilcher. "There were no bees at this lime, so I think that flies, beetles, or extinct types of moths or scorpion flies may have been involved in its pollination. Leefructus was found in the volcanic ash beds of an ancient lake. I think it was living near a lake, perhaps in a wet or marshy area much as buttercups do today'

The scientists' analysis of the plant's form leads them to believe Leefructus should be placed among the...