Jurassic fossils collected from China's Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia recently have been confirmed to be fossils of angiosperms after analysis by the paleontological team at Lanzhou University.

Angiosperms, also called flowering plant, are plants that produce flowers and bear their seeds in fruits. Angiosperms are the largest and most diverse group within the kingdom Plantae, with about 300,000 species. The long-held view in botany was that angiosperms only dated back 135 million years, well after the end of the Jurassic Period.

"This is the earliest fossil of angiosperms found in northwest China, indicating that angiosperms were already widespread in the area during the Jurassic Period, which is of great significance for further research on the origin and early evolution of angiosperms," said Han Lei, a researcher from the team.

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