Enlarge This ImageThe Asteraceae family is one of the largest plant families in the world. Its 20,000-plus members are found on every continent but Antarctica and include daisies, sunflowers, dandelions, lettuce and artichokes.
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Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad
Longer Roots Are Discovered in Large Plant Family
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: September 27, 2010
Science/AAAS
A fossil flower that is an ancient relative of daisies suggests taht the plant group rose 50 million years ago.
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Get Science News From The New York Times »Now, scientists have found the oldest known member of this family in a nearly 50 million-year-old fossil flower.
“That means that the family is not younger than this; it could be older,” said Jorge Crisci, a botanist at the Museum of La Plata in La Plata, Argentina, and one of the study’s authors. “This can help us find out the key of the success of the family.”
Previous fossil specimens of the family have primarily been pollen grains, giving little insight into what ancestral plants might have looked like.
But the new fossil is striking, with leaves and blooms. Though the details are not clear, it looks somewhat like a dandelion.
In conducting their analysis, the researchers compared the pollen present in the fossil with pollen in the family’s living plants. Because of similarities in the pollen samples, they were able to confirm that the fossil flower belongs to the Asteraceae family.
The specimen was found in northwest Patagonia, in what is now a dry, windy area. Millions of years ago when the flower was in bloom, the region had a more tropical climate.
Prior research, using molecular DNA, indicates that the family may have originated in South America, and the new fossil evidence appears to support this.
“It seems like southern South America was part of the origin of the family,” Dr. Crisci said.
The research appears in the journal Science.
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