Behind the Paper

A Rosid by any other name would be less abominably mysterious

Naming a mid-Cretaceous fossil as a modern genus could have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of angiosperm evolution
Published in Ecology & Evolution
Go to the profile of Richard Buggs
Richard Buggs
Professor, Queen Mary University of London
A Rosid by any other name would be less abominably mysterious
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Nature
Nature Nature

Reconfiguring Darwin’s abominable mystery - Nature Plants

New evidence that a mid-Cretaceous fossil represents a modern angiosperm genus partly reinstates Darwin’s view of the fossil record.

What we call something doesn't change its physical characteristics. As Shakespeare pointed out, "A rose by an other name would smell as sweet". But when it comes to taxonomy, an organism's name is a hypothesis about its affinities with other organisms in the past or present. What we call something is has far reaching consequences. The recent naming of a mid-Cretaceous Rosid fossil as Phylica piloburmensis is a case in point. I explain why in this News & Views article in Nature Plants: Reconfiguring Darwin’s abominable mystery. Here is a free full-text link https://rdcu.be/cIarG.

Go to the profile of Richard Buggs
Richard Buggs
Professor, Queen Mary University of London

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Life Sciences > Biological Sciences > Ecology

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