Latest from the lab: @ruolinwu.bsky.social integrates fossil and molecular evidence to estimate the timing of origin of flowering plants. Thanks to @sabifo4.bsky.social @jameswclark.bsky.social Yue Tong, Shan Wan, Davide Pisani, Harald Schneider and Daniele Silvestro for helping to make this happen
Philip Donoghue
The broader implication extends beyond flowering plants.
Many famous "rocks vs. clocks" debates may not require choosing sides. The challenge is finding better ways to let fossils and molecules speak to each other.
Link to our latest: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Using extensive fossil occurrence data and Bayesian Brownian Bridge modelling, this study derives data-driven calibration densities for molecular clocks and suggests a Late Jurassic origin of flowerin...
The Jurassic Gap shrinks dramatically.
Rather than fossils and molecular clocks being in fundamental conflict, they may have been talking past each other.
When fossil evidence is incorporated more comprehensively, the two records tell a much more consistent story of flowering plant evolution.
Ruolin WU
Instead of relying on a handful of fossil calibrations, we analysed >25,000 fossil occurrences across flowering plant history and used them to inform molecular dating analyses.
The result surprised us. Our analyses place the origin of crown-group angiosperms at ~151–153 million years ago.
Ruolin WU
Did flowering plants really spend 100 million years hiding from the fossil record?
For decades, fossils and molecular clocks seemed to tell completely different stories.
This became known as the "Jurassic Gap".
What if the problem wasn't the fossil record?
