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HYPOTHESES OF SUCCESS. "Most hypotheses to explain angiosperm radiation invoke biotic (instrinsic) factors, such as pollinating insects, coevolution with herbivorous insects, morphological novelties, or ecophysiological innovations as well as macroevolutionary patterns. However, recent studies have shown that extrinsic influences combined with biotic factors may drive species diversity at the multimillion-year time scale." https://lnkd.in/eiM6qET View in LinkedIn

HUGE INNOVATIONS. "Among plants, the angiosperms have undergone tremendous evolutionary innovations and radiations when compared with their sister clade, the gymnosperms." https://lnkd.in/eyHApyP View in LinkedIn

NINETY PERCENT. "Angiosperms, which originated ∼200 Ma, are the most recently diversifying major lineage of land plants. They underwent a rapid diversification, outcompeting and outnumbering other land plants to the point of representing nearly 90% (ca. 260,000 species) of all extant plant species and defining most of the Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems since the mid-Cretaceous, ca. 100 Ma BP." https://lnkd.in/e_tsWZF View in LinkedIn

START OF BIODIVERSITY. "The revolutionary rise of broad-leaved (flowering) angiosperm plant species during the Cretaceous initiated a global ecological transformation towards modern biodiversity." https://lnkd.in/eytCiwA View in LinkedIn

MAJOR UPHEAVAL. "Angiosperm range expansion and diversification have been major biotic upheavals in the Earth history." https://lnkd.in/eiM6qET View in LinkedIn

SUDDEN APPEARANCE. "The world of 120 million years ago was one of dynamic biological processes. During that time the flowering plants emerged as the dominant global floristic element, a transformative event that ultimately altered the character of the entire planet. Understandably, the rapid rise of angiosperms has intrigued paleoecologists and evolutionary biologists, who have strived to elucidate underlying explanations for their successful radiation." https://lnkd.in/e6kp7_K View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTIONARY MYSTERY. "The origin and extremely rapid diversification of flowering plants, which Darwin famously referred to as an “abominable mystery,” is one of the most extraordinary, and still not yet fully explained, phenomena in evolutionary history." https://lnkd.in/eZMh-NH View in LinkedIn

FIXATION BY DRIFT. "What is underappreciated by many nonevolution specialists is that much of molecular evolution in eukaryotes is primarily the result of genetic drift, or the fixation of neutral mutations. This view has been widely appreciated by molecular evolutionary biologists for the past 35 years." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

ABOMINABLE MYSTERY. "Darwin called their sudden appearance in the fossil record an “abominable mystery.” Since Darwin's time, we have been able to clarify that picture a little bit. Even so, our understanding of the origin of the angiosperm lineage is dubious at best. When and why did flowers evolve? There is scant fossil evidence to illustrate the early evolutionary steps in this development of flowers." https://lnkd.in/euP3eDr View in LinkedIn

"MICHAEL LYNCH once wrote, “Nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of population genetics” (Distinguished professor of biology, Indiana University). http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn