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    Home > Food News > Food Articles > Scientists have restored what their fir ancestors looked like 165 million years ago

    Scientists have restored what their fir ancestors looked like 165 million years ago

    • Last Update: 2021-03-14
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Reporters from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology was informed that the team led by the institute after nearly 5 years of exploration, restored 165 million years ago a fir ancestral group: the morphological characteristics of hedgehog Australian fir.
    Similar to today's fir trees, hedgehog Australian fir trees also have staggered growth of branches, spiraled leaves and female fruit, male ball flowers, but unlike today's fir male flowers usually more than 40 clusters, 165 million years ago the fir "old ancestors" branch top male ball flowers usually only 4 clusters.
    is a group of cypress plants, mainly distributed in China's Yangtze River basin and Vietnam and other places. Fossil evidence of its ancestral group dates back as far as 180 million years. Previous morphological studies of fir ancestors have been limited to individual branches or leaves, and comprehensive studies of plants as a whole are rare.
    research team has successfully found more than 70 Jurassic hedgehog Australian fir fossils from 165 million years ago after nearly five years of collection and collation. Based on the fossils, the team found that the branches of the hedgehog Australian fir grow staggered, with the top twigs between 2cm and 5cm long. Its leaves are line-shaped and have a vein in the middle. The leaves are about 1 cm long and 2 mm wide, and the leaves grow in a spiral arrangement on the branches. Some twigs have female balls on top, which are usually 1 to 2 long together and less than 1 cm long. There are also some small branches with male ball flowers on the top, a single male ball flower length of no more than 7 mm, generally 4 grow into a cluster.
    Dong, an assistant researcher at the Southern Institute of Ancient Studies who was involved in the study, said the study, based on a wealth of fossil materials, revealed for the first time the detailed morphological and anatomical features of hedgehog Australian fir trees, providing important new evidence for understanding the ancestors and early evolution of fir trees and even the entire cypress plant. The findings were published recently in the International Journal of Plant Science, an authoritative botany journal published at the University of Chicago. (Source: Xinhua News Agency,
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