Newly discovered fossils have pushed back the origin date of everyone's favourite thing (that's flowers. Obviously.) by up to one hundred million years. Which is a hella long time. To put that in perspective, it's "only" 65 million years since the dinosaurs died out. It's just 30,000 years since neanderthals died out! I should stop measuring time in "when things died out", it's a little depressing.
But what ISN'T depressing is the idea that FLOWERS HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR AGES.
The new fossils have been discovered in Switzerland, whrre preserved pollenn grains have been discovered which potentially date back as far as 240-MYA. It was generally assumed beforehand that flowers came along around the Cretaceous period, around 140MYA (that's "Million Years Ago")
Is the new evidence conclusive, though? The scientists behind it seem to think so! "We believe that even highly cautious scientists will now be convinced that flowering plants evolved long before the Cretaceous," said Peter Hochuli of the Paleontological Institute and Museum at the University of Zürich.
