Fruits of May. Saga of the Cretaceous period. Cretaceous Period plants

One of the hallmarks of the Cretaceous Period was the development and radiation of the flowering plants. The oldest angiosperm fossil that has been found to date is Archaefructus liaoningensis, found by Ge Sun and David Dilcher in China. It seems to have been most similar to the modern black pepper plant and is thought to be at least 122 million years old.Advertisement It used to be thought that the pollinating insects, such as bees and wasps, evolved at about the same time as the angiosperms. It was frequently cited as an example of co-evolution. New research, however, indicates that insect pollination was probably well established before the first flowers. While the oldest bee fossil was trapped in its amber prison only about 80 million years ago, evidence has been found that bee- or wasp-like insects built hive-like nests in what is now called the Petrified Forest in Arizona.