Flowers evolved from male gymnosperm 'cones' with the first being lilies and avacados

[Elmore Furth]

The discovery of 'missing links' in evolutions has become easier by genetic testing.

The origin of flowers was unclear until the similarities in RNA between primative flowering plants and cone bearing gymnosperms was elucidated.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2010) — From southern Africa's pineapple lily to Western Australia's swamp bottlebrush, flowering plants are everywhere. Also called angiosperms, they make up 90 percent of all land-based, plant life.

New research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides new insights into their genetic origin, an evolutionary innovation that quickly gave rise to many diverse flowering plants more than 130 million years ago. Moreover, a flower with genetic programming similar to a water lily may have started it all.

"Water lilies and avocado flowers are essentially 'genetic fossils' still carrying genetic instructions that would have allowed the transformation of gymnosperm cones into flowers," said biologist Doug Soltis, co-lead researcher at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Gymnosperms are a group of seed-bearing plants that include conifers and cycads that produce "cones" as reproductive structures, one example being the well-known pine cone. "We show how the first flowering plants evolved from pre-existing genetic programs found in gymnosperm cones and then developed into the diversity of flowering plants we see today," he said. "A genetic program in the gymnosperm cone was modified to make the first flower."

What 'Pine' Cones Reveal About the Evolution of Flowers

[DCKit]

1. Way more fun than Bible myths, just not so easy for the simple-minded. nt

[Peace Patriot]

4. Nope, it's actually very like the "Adam's Rib" Bible story, except that...

...we are not plants.

:rofl:

[pscot]

2. Sounds a bit fey

if you ask me.

[tabatha]

3. Thanks - I love reading this stuff.

[Gator_Matt]

5. Another win for molecular phylogenetics

Interesting link. Another piece in the puzzle.

[Odin2005]

6. It is thought that flowering plants evolved in moist tropical highlands.

They would have been shrubs, small trees, and climbing vines. Wind-based pollination does not work well in such an environment.

The ancestor of flowering plants was likely something related to the broad-leaved gymnosperm Gnetum.

[arachadillo]

7. Flowers and Pinecones

"New research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides new insights into their genetic origin, an evolutionary innovation that quickly gave rise to many diverse flowering plants more than 130 million years ago. Moreover, a flower with genetic programming similar to a water lily may have started it all."

The evolutionary origin of flowers continues to mystify researchers.

A recent event examining Darwin and the Evolution of Flowers tells us one of the scientific origins of the mystification.
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/2010/evolution_flowers.xhtml

"In the second half of the nineteenth century, pioneering discoveries of rich assemblages of fossil plants from the Cretaceous resulted in considerable interest in the first appearance of angiosperms in the geological record. Darwin's famous comment, which labelled the ‘rapid development’ of angiosperms an ‘abominable mystery’, dates from this time. Darwin and his contemporaries were puzzled by the relatively late, seemingly sudden and geographically widespread appearance of modern-looking angiosperms in Late Cretaceous floras."

The event produced over a dozen different takes on the subject.

One additional (of the perhaps hundreds of research studies available)
http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v4/n7/full/nrg1114.html

"The Mostly Male theory is the first to use evidence from gene phylogenies, genetics, modern plant morphology and fossils to explain the evolutionary origin of flowers. It proposes that flower organization derives more from the male structures of ancestral gymnosperms than from female structures. The theory arose from a hypothesis-based study. Such studies are the most likely to generate testable evolutionary scenarios, which should be the ultimate goal of evo-devo."