Paleobotany and evolution

The origins and diversity of flowering plants can best be understood by studying their fossil history. The fossil record provides important data to help show when and where early angiosperms lived, why flowering plants came to exist, and from what group or groups of plants they evolved.

The earliest plants generally accepted to be angiospermous are known from the Early Cretaceous Epoch (about 145 million to 100.5 million years ago), though angiosperm-like pollen discovered in 2013 in Switzerland dates to the Anisian Age of the Middle Triassic (about 247.2 million to 242 million years ago), suggesting that angiosperms may have evolved much earlier than previously thought. Fossil pollen of angiosperms is found in the Hauterivian and Barremian ages, which spanned from about 132.9 million to 125 million years ago. A very few angiosperm leaves and flowers are found in layers dating to the early Aptian Age (about 125 million to 113 million years ago). In 2015 scientists reanalyzed the fossils of Montsechia vidalii, an aquatic plant discovered in Spain, and identified it as one of the oldest known angiosperm plants—130 million years old, from the Lower Cretaceous. Many of the earliest fossils of angiosperms are most similar to small bushes or small herbaceous plants, such as those in the Chloranthaceae (Chloranthales), Ceratophyllaceae (Ceratophyllales), and Ranunculaceae (Ranunculales) families. More diverse flora showing a larger variety of pollen, leaves, and reproductive organs with angiospermous affinities developed during the Albian Age (about 113 million to 100.5 million years ago).

From the end of the Albian (the close of the Early Cretaceous) and the beginning of the Late Cretaceous (about 100.5 million to 66 million years ago), angiosperms further diversified and dispersed. Many woody angiosperms evolved at that time, as did several modern groups, such as the magnolia, laurel, sycamore, and rose families. Herbaceous plants such as the water lilies (Nymphaeales), the family Ceratophyllaceae, and some of the early monocotyledons also persisted from the Albian until today.

Because some of the oldest and most diverse angiosperm floras are found in Africa near the Equator, followed by low-latitude, angiosperm-dominated floras in North America, angiosperms are thought to have radiated from the Equator and spread to either pole. The angiosperms developed a close association with insect pollinators early in their evolution. This promoted outcrossing resulting in genetically vigorous offspring. Also, the relatively short generation time in which the angiosperms reproduce—permitting rapid population growth and easier colonization of disturbed habitats—gave the flowering plants an adaptive advantage over the gymnosperms, which were dominant during the Early Cretaceous. The seeds of angiosperms were small and were probably eaten and carried to new areas by animals. Thus, the angiosperms were able to migrate into and occupy new areas of the world. At the beginning of the Cenomanian Age (about 100.5 million to 93.9 million years ago), angiosperms probably formed dominant pockets of vegetation along many low coastal tropical and warm temperate areas of the world. During the Cenomanian the angiosperms also spread to inland continental areas as well as northward and southward along the coasts. By the middle to late Cenomanian (about 95 million to 93.9 million years ago), angiosperms had become the dominant form of vegetation in many areas of the world.

One of the most conspicuous features of angiosperms is the flower. Most frequently, flowers are brightly coloured, often scented structures containing nectar and the male and female reproductive organs. Because it is generally important for the genetic integrity of a plant that it avoid pollinating itself or a nearby, possibly closely related, neighbour, pollen from one plant must ideally be moved some distance to another plant. Wind is often an effective but imprecise pollination mechanism. Frequently, flowering plants are more accurately pollinated by animals, which carry the pollen some distance to another flower. Thus, development of showy flowers has involved the coevolution of insects or other animals and the early ancestors of the angiosperms.

Various groups of extinct seed plants have been proposed as the ancestral stock at different times in the evolution of the angiosperms. The Pteridospermales (seed ferns) are a group of extinct early seed plants that resemble small trees and shrubs with fernlike foliage. They bore seeds on their leaves or in specialized structures derived from leaves and had specialized pollen-bearing organs or simple anthers. The ovules and pollen organs were separate reproductive units, and wind may have been the most common agent of pollen transfer. Some seed ferns of the Paleozoic Era (about 541 million to 252.2 million years ago) contained pollen grains that were much too large to be effectively dispersed by the wind. These plants probably depended on insects to carry the pollen grains from one plant to another.

The Cycadeoidophyta are a group of extinct seed plants that contain members that have widely different reproductive structures. In some the female and male reproductive organs were separate, while in others the reproductive structures were organized into a common reproductive unit in which the male organs surrounded the female organ. These reproductive organs sat on a receptacle similar to that in flowering plants and often were surrounded by sterile bracts or leaflike tissue, which may have opened to form a flowerlike structure in the genus Williamsoniella (Cycadeoidales). Some extinct Cycadeoidales may have been pollinated by insects. The female and male reproductive organs tend to be clustered when insect pollination is involved, which is probably why most flowers are bisexual.

It is not clear whether the flowering plants are derived from the Pteridospermales or the Cycadeoidales; however, in both groups the potential existed for modification of the plant body and the reproductive tissue to be responsive to both the physical and biological environments of the Mesozoic Era (about 252.2 million to 66 million years ago). The pollen evidence suggests that the Gnetales, a modern group of gymnosperms closely related to the angiosperms, were present during the Triassic Period (about 252.2 million to 201.3 million years ago). Thus, the evolution that produced the plants which were eventually recognized as the angiosperms must have been taking place during the Triassic, Jurassic, and early Cretaceous periods (which span from about 252 million to 100.5 million years ago).

The ancestral stock probably was a small to medium-size plant in which large leafy shoots contained individual fertile female, fertile male, and sterile leaves. The form of the plant was modified: the leaf size was reduced, and some shoots were modified so that the ovules remained enclosed inside the leaf tissue, which was shortened so that the ovule and pollen organs were borne close together. The sterile leaves may have been lost in some evolutionary lines or may have evolved into sepals and petals in others. The pollen-bearing organs (stamens) or ovule-bearing organs (carpels) may have been lost in some lines of evolution, resulting in unisexual flowers, or both may have been retained together in others to produce bisexual flowers.

Those early lines of angiosperm evolution in which wind may have functioned in pollination retained small, inconspicuous, often unisexual flowers. In those evolutionary lines that developed close associations with specific insect pollinators, the organs become dramatically modified. Small, inconspicuous bisexual or unisexual flowers are known from the Aptian Age. Large petals developed by the late Albian (about 105 million years ago). In insect-pollinated flowers and bisexual flowers that contain their characteristic nectaries, very large petals and anthers with abundant small pollen are known from the earliest Cenomanian Age. The presence of small, inconspicuous unisexual flowers, probably pollinated by wind or water, from the Aptian and late Albian suggests that the form and mode of reproduction of angiosperms were beginning to diverge from those of their ancestors even before this is attested in macrofossils.

The special features of flowering plants that enhanced the coevolutionary links with animals evolved at various times in different groups of angiosperms. There were, however, three major nodes of coevolution in the development of flowering plants: the evolution of showy flowers attractive to animal (mainly insect) pollinators, the evolution of bilaterally symmetrical flowers with variously fused parts to direct the behaviour of particular animal pollinators (especially social insects and birds), and the evolution of larger energy-rich animals (especially mammals and birds) to disperse fruits and seeds. Each of these events had a dynamic effect on the evolution of angiosperms, increasing their diversity at different times in different groups and affecting their floral and fruit morphology in various ways.

The early angiosperms appear to have had few and radially arranged flower parts. The flowers were unisexual or bisexual, with superior ovaries, loosely closed to fully closed carpels, free flower parts, and small fruits and seeds. The fossil record of the early evolution of the flower demonstrates a tendency toward an increased number of flower parts, a loose to complete fusion of carpels, the development of a style, the elevation of the stigmatic surface upon the style, a slight increase in seed size, and a diversity of ways in which flowers were borne upon the plant.

The evolution of both female and male reproductive organs in the same flower was both beneficial and problematic in the early angiosperms. Insects visiting a unisexual flower either picked up pollen or deposited pollen, depending on the sex of the flower visited. Insect visits, therefore, only randomly fertilized flowers as the insect alternated between male and female flowers. It became beneficial to the flower to evolve a place for both sexes in a single flower so that each insect visit would deposit and remove pollen. When both sexes are present in a single flower, however, there develops a strong possibility that the flower may pollinate itself, a situation that could cause inbreeding depression, thereby reducing the vigour of the offspring over successive generations. It was probably very early in the evolutionary history of flowering plants that self-incompatibility was evolved, a mechanism that prevents flowers or plants from self-pollinating. The pollen of many modern insect-pollinated bisexual flowers is incompatible with the flower in which it is produced.

Another feature of flowers that developed as a result of insect pollination is pollen tube competition. When a pollen load of 50–200 pollen grains is deposited on a stigma at one time, each pollen grain grows a pollen tube into the stigmatic tissue. The pollen tubes that grow the fastest reach the ovules first and effect fertilization. It has been demonstrated that the pollen grain with the fastest-growing pollen tube carries genes that produce more vigorous offspring. By the early Cenomanian the stigmas of some insect-pollinated flowers were elevated on styles, effectively establishing some distance for the pollen tubes to travel. This would establish pollen tube competition as a selective mechanism within some early flowers.

During the first 70 million years of angiospermous evolution, all the known flowers were radially symmetrical. It is only in the early Paleogene Period—specifically, during the latest Paleocene and early Eocene (about 59.2 million to 41.3 million years ago)—that the first evidence of bilaterally symmetrical flowers is found. The evolution of bilateral flowers—for example, that of the legumes and orchids—is an adaptation for specialized pollinators such as social insects (bees) and some birds. The sterile organs (sepals, petals) are modified to present a certain flower orientation to the pollinator, enabling the pollinator to enter the flower where the pollen organs and pollen-receptive tissue are positioned to maximize effective pollination. During the early Paleogene the bilateral organization of floral organs coevolved with animal behaviour independently at different times and in various groups of angiosperms.

The evolution of mammals and birds also influenced the evolution of flowering plants in the early Paleogene. During the first 70 million–80 million years of their existence, the fruits and seeds of the angiosperms were small. The initial radiation of larger energy-rich fruits and seeds, such as the acorns, chestnuts, walnuts, legume pods, and the earliest grasses, took place during the Eocene. These fruits appeared over a short period of time contemporaneously with the diversification of seed- and fruit-eating mammals and birds. Seeds of fleshy fruits, such as grapes, also became common in the Eocene (about 45 million years ago). Thus, a second important node of plant and animal coevolution apparently developed about 50 million–60 million years ago, when angiosperms began to produce fruits and seeds that were attractive to animals. The animals served as agents to carry fruits and seeds some distance from the parent plant, further enhancing the potential for outcrossing and aiding in the dispersal of angiospermous plants to new areas of the world.

In summary, the evolutionary history of angiosperms is intimately but not exclusively tied to their coevolution with animal pollinators and agents of fruit and seed dispersal. Wind and water pollination and fruit and seed dispersal also continued throughout the entire evolutionary history of flowering plants. This network of evolutionary pressures resulted in the variety of flowers and fruits representative of present-day angiosperms. Accordingly, some of the most useful characters in determining the particular taxon to which living angiosperms belong are flowers, fruits, and seeds. The evolution of such vegetative characteristics as wood and leaves is more complex and less well understood.