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A photo of the “mineral flower” alongside other diagenetic features on the surface of Mars captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Feb. 25. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) NASA’s Curiosity rover recently got up close and personal with a tiny, flower-like mineral deposit on the surface of Mars. The beautiful branching rock, which is just 0.4 inch … Read more
The Curiosity rover took a picture of something pretty enticing this week on the surface of Mars. While the object in question looks like a tiny little flower or maybe even some type of organic feature, the rover team confirmed this object is a mineral formation, with delicate structures that formed by minerals precipitating from water. … Read more
There are only two flowering plants native to Antarctica and both have seen an explosion in their numbers in the decade from 2009 to 2019 Environment 14 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins Deschampsia antarctica is one of two flowering plants native to Antarctica Nature/Getty Images Plants in Antarctica are growing more quickly due to climate … Read more
Public library of DNA sequences will allow botanists to track the complex evolutionary history of flowering plants in unprecedented detail Life 1 February 2022 By Chen Ly Zinnia flowers in a meadow Shutterstock / Pheobus More than 9000 species of plants have had sections of their genomes sequenced as part of the Plant and Fungal … Read more
Scientists in China say they have found the oldest flower bud in the fossil record, finally aligning the fossil evidence with the genetic data suggesting flowering plants, or angiosperms, evolved tens of millions of years earlier than we initially thought. The team hopes their discovery will help “ease the pain” around a nagging, centuries-old mystery that … Read more
Following the time of the dinosaurs, it might well be that the evolution of flowering plants drove the explosion in the diversity of life on Earth, according to a 2021 paper. Most of the plants we now eat, drink, wear, and build with are of the flowering variety. They’re called angiosperms, which roughly translates from … Read more