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Science 27 November 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5394, pp. 1653 - 1654
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5394.1653
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Perspectives

BOTANY:
The Abominable Mystery

William L. Crepet

The question of how flowering plants (called angiosperms) evolved and their relationship to other plants has puzzled botanists for a century--a riddle that Charles Darwin called the "abominable mystery." In his Perspective, Crepet discusses a new fossil discovery reported by Sun et al. in the same issue. Reproductive structures from northeast China are identified by Sun et al. as evidence for a Jurassic angiosperm. Crepet reviews the current understanding of angiosperm evolution and how this new finding fits into the picture of flowering plant origins.

The author is at the L. H. Bailey Hortorium, Division of Biological Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. E-mail: wlc1{at}cornell.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Origin and Diversification of the Angiosperm Flower.
G. Theissen and R. Melzer (2007)
Ann. Bot. 100, 603-619
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
An early infructescence Hyrcantha decussata (comb. nov.) from the Yixian Formation in northeastern China.
D. L. Dilcher, G. Sun, Q. Ji, and H. Li (2007)
PNAS 104, 9370-9374
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Progress in understanding angiosperm history, success, and relationships: Darwin's abominably "perplexing phenomenon".
W. L. Crepet (2000)
PNAS 97, 12939-12941
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Independent and combined analyses of sequences from all three genomic compartments converge on the root of flowering plant phylogeny.
T. J. Barkman, G. Chenery, J. R. McNeal, J. Lyons-Weiler, W. J. Ellisens, G. Moore, A. D. Wolfe, and C. W. dePamphilis (2000)
PNAS
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Utility of 17 chloroplast genes for inferring the phylogeny of the basal angiosperms.
S. W. Graham and R. G. Olmstead (2000)
Am. J. Botany 87, 1712-1730
   Abstract »    Full Text »
From the Cover: Independent and combined analyses of sequences from all three genomic compartments converge on the root of flowering plant phylogeny.
T. J. Barkman, G. Chenery, J. R. McNeal, J. Lyons-Weiler, W. J. Ellisens, G. Moore, A. D. Wolfe, and C. W. dePamphilis (2000)
PNAS 97, 13166-13171
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)