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The origin and early diversification of angiosperms

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Abstract

The major diversification of flowering plants (angiosperms) in the Early Cretaceous, between about 130 and 90 million years ago, initiated fundamental changes in terrestrial ecosystems and set in motion processes that generated most of the extant plant diversity. New palaeobotanical discoveries, combined with recent phylogenetic analyses of morphological and molecular data, have clarified the initial phases of this radiation and changed our perspective on early angiosperm evolution, though important issues remain unresolved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, 60605

    Peter R. Crane

  2. the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, USA

    Peter R. Crane

  3. Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, S104 05, Stockholm, Sweden

    Else Marie Friis

  4. Department of Geology, University of Aarhus, Universitetsparken DK-8000, Aarhus, Denmark

    Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen

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  1. Peter R. Crane
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  2. Else Marie Friis
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  3. Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen
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Crane, P., Friis, E. & Pedersen, K. The origin and early diversification of angiosperms. Nature 374, 27–33 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/374027a0

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