The early relatives of flowering plants

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Sectional view of a 120 million years old Early Cretaceous plant seed. Its complex inner structure was determined by means of phase-contrast X-ray microtomography at the TOMCAT beamline of the SLS (micron scale). Credit: PSI
Sectional view of a 120 million years old Early Cretaceous plant seed. Its complex inner structure was determined by means of phase-contrast X-ray microtomography at the TOMCAT beamline of the SLS (micron scale). Credit: PSI

The emergence of flowering plants is regarded as a major botanical mystery. In today’s edition of the scientific magazine Nature, an international research team with participation from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) publishes results that shed fresh light on this controversial question. New three-dimensional non-destructive imaging procedures have been used for the first time to carry out investigations into fossilised plant seeds. As a result, it has been possible to confirm an earlier scientific theory, which had previously been cast into doubt by molecular genetic analyses.


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