A new fossil assemblage shows that large angiosperm trees grew in North America by the Turonian (Late Cretaceous) (original) (raw)

“…In contrast, gymnosperms appeared well before angiosperms in the Devonian (∼380 Ma) and flourished in diversity during the Mesozoic ( 14 , 32 – 34 ). The fossil record shows a sudden and rapid increase in diversity and geographic spread of angiosperms since the middle Cretaceous ( 18 , 19 , 35 – 40 ), which resulted in the ecological dominance, in terms of species richness, of flowering plants observed in most terrestrial ecosystems today ( 41 – 46 ). As a consequence, it is widely assumed that angiosperms underwent such an ecological and evolutionary diversification that they outcompeted and outnumbered other land plants in terms of richness ( 18 , 19 , 35 – 46 ).…”