Revisiting the Golden Rule: New Insights on Fibonacci Spirals in Plant Evolution
Researchers have discovered evidence of non-Fibonacci spirals in a fossilized plant that lived approximately 407 million years ago, challenging the traditional belief that these spirals are a conserved trait originating from Earth’s first land-dwelling plants. The analysis revealed that the leaves and reproductive structures of Asteroxylon mackiei primarily followed non-Fibonacci spirals, a pattern that’s quite rare in present-day plants. The research implies that the evolutionary path of leaf spirals took two separate routes, with the leaves of ancient clubmosses carving out a distinct evolutionary history from other major groups of plants today, such as ferns, conifers, and flowering plants.
