"The Indestructible Ancient Life-Form That Could Outlive Humanity"
Angiosperms, the flowering plants, have proven to be remarkably resilient over the last 140-240 million years, surviving the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. While many angiosperm species did disappear during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction (K-Pg), the lineages to which they belonged carried on undisturbed, creating the diverse life on Earth that we know today. This resilience may be attributed to their ability to adapt, evolve new mechanisms for seed dispersal and pollination, and duplicate their entire genome, allowing for greater diversity. However, a worrying number of angiosperm species are currently threatened with extinction, and their demise could have significant consequences for life on Earth.
