Flowering plants, or angiosperms, now dominate Earth’s flora, but biologists thought they truly took off only after an asteroid impact 66 million years ago. A ‘botanical Pompeii’ containing fossilized seeds and fruits shows they prospered 10 million years earlier.
Does that suggest that this type of angiosperms existed in this local ecosystem before the extinction, but maybe only dispersed globally afterward? (I.e., that local biodiversity was a successful bet-hedging strategy against mass extinction?)
Does that suggest that this type of angiosperms existed in this local ecosystem before the extinction, but maybe only dispersed globally afterward? (I.e., that local biodiversity was a successful bet-hedging strategy against mass extinction?)