• Education
    • Higher Education
    • Scholarships & Grants
    • Online Learning
    • School Reforms
    • Research & Innovation
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Home & Living
    • Relationships & Family
  • Technology & Startups
    • Software & Apps
    • Startup Success Stories
    • Startups & Innovations
    • Tech Regulations
    • Venture Capital
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cybersecurity
    • Emerging Technologies
    • Gadgets & Devices
    • Industry Analysis
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
Today Headline
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
Today Headline
No Result
View All Result
Home Science & Environment

Fossils Reveal Mysterious ‘Alien Plant’ Is Unlike Any Other Known : ScienceAlert todayheadline

December 20, 2024
in Science & Environment
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
0
Mysterious 'Alien Plant' Fossil Is Even Weirder Than We Thought It Was
4
SHARES
8
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


A plant that lived 47 million years ago in what is now Utah is like nothing that lives on planet Earth today.

The discovery of new fossils reveals that a species first found in 1969 is not a member of the ginseng family, as scientists had initially speculated. Rather, the entire family of the newly named Othniophyton elongatum is extinct, suggesting that the history of flowering plants is more complicated than we knew.


Othniophyton elongatum specimens were first excavated from the Green River Formation in Utah, a particularly rich fossil bed dating back to the Eocene. Generally speaking, paleobotanists assume that any plant fossils dating from the beginning of the Cenozoic 65 million years ago must be related to plants that are alive today, and Othniophyton elongatum was no exception.


The paleobotanist who initially studied the fossils, Harry MacGinitie, named it Oreopanax elongatum – placing it into a genus of shrubs under a family umbrella that includes ginseng, angelica, and ivy. After a close study of the leaves, scientists thought that they may be compound leaves, made up of many smaller leaves, like some ginseng family plants. Oreopanax xalapensis is one example.

An absolute bonanza of plant fossils. (Manchester et al., Ann. Bot., 2024)

And that could have been that… until the discovery of another set of 47-million-year-old plant fossils came to light. It had leaves just like the 1969 fossils – but that wasn’t all.


“This fossil is rare in having the twig with attached fruits and leaves,” explains paleobotanist Steven Manchester of the Florida Museum of Natural History. “Usually those are found separately.”


With so many more components of the plant in hand, Manchester and his colleagues set about trying to learn more about Oreopanax elongatum. But the more they looked at their new fossils, the more they realized that the Eocene plant had nothing in common with the genus Oreopanax, or the Araliaceae family to which it belongs.


The leaves, directly attached to the twig, were the first clue. They were not compound leaves, as initially thought, back in the 1960s. And looking at the berries, the plant just got even more puzzling. The strange set of features displayed by the fossil matched no living flowering plants at all, the researchers found.

Mysterious 'Alien Plant' Fossil Is Even Weirder Than We Thought It Was
Detailed fossils of the fruits, showing stamens protruding from the hypanthium, and seeds represented by turquoise dots. (Manchester et al., Ann. Bot., 2024)

A breakthrough arrived with a new microscopy station installed at the museum. This allowed the researchers to look at the plant in much greater detail than they had been able to see before. They could look inside the berries to see the plant’s seeds, and tease apart the minute details of the flowers.


One of the oddest observations Manchester and his colleagues made was that the plant’s stamens – the male part of the reproductive system – had not fallen off as the berries developed.


“Normally we don’t expect to see that preserved in these types of fossils, but maybe we’ve been overlooking it because our equipment didn’t pick up that kind of topographic relief,” Manchester says.


“Usually, stamens will fall away as the fruit develops. And this thing seems unusual in that it’s retaining the stamens at the time it has mature fruits with seeds ready to disperse. We haven’t seen that in anything modern.”


The next step was to try to match it to Cenozoic-era plants on the fossil record. Once again, the researchers came up empty. There were just no known plants similar enough to what they were looking at. Even where similarities could be found with other plants, there were too many differences to make a link.

Mysterious 'Alien Plant' Fossil Is Even Weirder Than We Thought It Was
A paleoartist’s reconstruction of Othniophyton elongatum. (Manchester et al., Ann. Bot., 2024)

We just don’t know where this plant sits in relation to other plants. It’s the most similar to the Caryophyllales order, but there are too many differences.


The researchers renamed the extinct plant Othniophytum elongatum – Greek for “elongated alien plant” – and concluded that it likely belongs to a family of plants that no longer exists on Earth.


This means that paleobotanists have a new tool for studying how plants diversified, adapted, and changed – and, perhaps, which strategies may have been less effective at survival across millions of years of a changing world.


And it’s a bit of a cautionary tale, too, not to let biases and assumptions overtake the evidence.


“There are many things for which we have good evidence to put in a modern family or genus, but you can’t always shoehorn these things,” Manchester says.

The research has been published in Annals of Botany.

Previous Post

Trump transfers all his DJT shares to his revocable trust, SEC filings show

Next Post

Sri Lanka’s China-backed Hambanota industrial park gets mattress export firm todayheadline

Related Posts

Piles of Penguin Poop Could Help Cool Antarctica

Piles of Penguin Poop Could Surprisingly Help Cool Antarctica : ScienceAlert todayheadline

May 23, 2025
0
night sky image showing the moon shining in the center with Venus to the left and Saturn to the right.

Venus, Saturn and the moon dazzle at dawn in ‘romantic’ photo from Chew Valley Lake (photo)

May 23, 2025
4
Next Post

Sri Lanka’s China-backed Hambanota industrial park gets mattress export firm todayheadline

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

April 2, 2025
Pioneering 3D printing project shares successes

Product reduces TPH levels to non-hazardous status

November 27, 2024

Hospital Mergers Fail to Deliver Better Care or Lower Costs, Study Finds todayheadline

December 31, 2024

Police ID man who died after Corso Italia fight

December 23, 2024
Harris tells supporters 'never give up' and urges peaceful transfer of power

Harris tells supporters ‘never give up’ and urges peaceful transfer of power

0
Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend's Mother

Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother

0

Trump ‘looks forward’ to White House meeting with Biden

0
Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

0
night sky image showing the moon shining in the center with Venus to the left and Saturn to the right.

Venus, Saturn and the moon dazzle at dawn in ‘romantic’ photo from Chew Valley Lake (photo)

May 23, 2025
Microsoft unveils AI agent orchestrator for cancer care coordination

Microsoft unveils AI agent orchestrator for cancer care coordination

May 23, 2025
Two men acquitted in Dodger stadium attack

Two men acquitted in Dodger stadium attack

May 23, 2025
Sanction on Harvard's foreign students strikes at the heart of the university's global allure

Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure

May 23, 2025

Recent News

night sky image showing the moon shining in the center with Venus to the left and Saturn to the right.

Venus, Saturn and the moon dazzle at dawn in ‘romantic’ photo from Chew Valley Lake (photo)

May 23, 2025
4
Microsoft unveils AI agent orchestrator for cancer care coordination

Microsoft unveils AI agent orchestrator for cancer care coordination

May 23, 2025
4
Two men acquitted in Dodger stadium attack

Two men acquitted in Dodger stadium attack

May 23, 2025
4
Sanction on Harvard's foreign students strikes at the heart of the university's global allure

Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure

May 23, 2025
3

TodayHeadline is a dynamic news website dedicated to delivering up-to-date and comprehensive news coverage from around the globe.

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Basketball
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Change
  • Crime & Justice
  • Economic Policies
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Policies
  • Europe
  • Football
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Health
  • Medical Research
  • Mental Health
  • Middle East
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Politics
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Science & Environment
  • Software & Apps
  • Space Exploration
  • Sports
  • Stock Market
  • Technology & Startups
  • Tennis
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Us & Canada
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • World News

Recent News

night sky image showing the moon shining in the center with Venus to the left and Saturn to the right.

Venus, Saturn and the moon dazzle at dawn in ‘romantic’ photo from Chew Valley Lake (photo)

May 23, 2025
Microsoft unveils AI agent orchestrator for cancer care coordination

Microsoft unveils AI agent orchestrator for cancer care coordination

May 23, 2025
  • Education
  • Lifestyle
  • Technology & Startups
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy

© 2024 Todayheadline.co

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Business & Finance
  • Corporate News
  • Economic Policies
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Market Trends
  • Crime & Justice
  • Court Cases
  • Criminal Investigations
  • Cybercrime
  • Legal Reforms
  • Policing
  • Education
  • Higher Education
  • Online Learning
  • Entertainment
  • Awards & Festivals
  • Celebrity News
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Health
  • Fitness & Nutrition
  • Medical Breakthroughs
  • Mental Health
  • Pandemic Updates
  • Lifestyle
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • Food & Drink
  • Home & Living
  • Politics
  • Elections
  • Government Policies
  • International Relations
  • Legislative News
  • Political Parties
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cybersecurity
  • Emerging Technologies
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Industry Analysis
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Climate Change
  • Environmental Policies
  • Medical Research
  • Science & Environment
  • Space Exploration
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • Sports
  • Tennis
  • Technology & Startups
  • Software & Apps
  • Startup Success Stories
  • Startups & Innovations
  • Tech Regulations
  • Venture Capital
  • Uncategorized
  • World News
  • Us & Canada
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Travel
  • Research & Innovation
  • Scholarships & Grants
  • School Reforms
  • Stock Market
  • TV & Streaming
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
  • About us
  • Contact

© 2024 Todayheadline.co