Palaeobiology: The missing link in Ginkgo evolution
@article{Zhou2003PalaeobiologyTM,
title={Palaeobiology: The missing link in Ginkgo evolution},
author={Zhiyan Zhou and Shaolin Zheng},
journal={Nature},
year={2003},
volume={423},
pages={821-822}
}The maidenhair tree, or Ginkgo, is a gymnosperm that has been described as a 'living fossil' because it is known to have existed early in the Jurassic period 170 million years (Myr) ago, but a full understanding of its evolution has been impeded by a gap in the fossil record of more than 100 Myr — a crucial period during which the modern ovulate organs evolved from the Jurassic type. Here we describe a new Ginkgo fossil that was collected from the Lower Cretaceous fossil Lagerstätte (the Yixian… Expand
139 Citations
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Supplementary information accompanies this communication on Nature's website. Competing financial interests: declared none