Chinese paleontologists found the remains of an old plant that lived about 170 million years ago.

The earliest known angiosperm was found in Northwest China, according to a recent announcement by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology.

The Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou University, the Ningxia Geological Museum, and Northwest University all collaborated on the project. An international magazine of biology, Life, has published the study's findings.

The oval, 17 millimeter-long, 9 millimeter-wide fossil flower buds are mounted on a 15 millimeter-long stalk. According to the researchers, there is a larch-like structure at the bottom that is covered in flower petals.

According to the study's principal investigator, angiosperms are a group that includes both fruits and flowers. The group of plants that is currently the most advanced, diverse, widespread, and adaptable is the angiosperms. The number of living angiosperm species in the globe is 300,000.

The research team reexamined a Jurassic plant fossil that was found in northwest China approximately 170 million years ago. Prior to this discovery, the plant was known as Drepanolepis formosa Zhang, 1998, and was believed to be a gymnosperm. In the most recent study, the scientists scanned the fossil using micro-CT technology and discovered that the interior had inverted ovules, which is a crucial characteristic for classifying angiosperms.

According to the most recent study, each carpel or fruit contains an inverted ovule with two integuments, which is a crucial characteristic for classifying angiosperms. For this reason, the ancient plant was given the name Qingganninginfructus formosa.

In Northwest China, the fossil plant represents the earliest indication of angiosperms. Its discovery suggests that angiosperms first emerged, expanded far, and attained a certain level of prosperity as early as 170 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic.