Cretaceous period was the longest segment of Mesozoic era that lasted for almost 80 million years. Cretaceous period is the last section of the Mesozoic era. The first angiosperm and pollinating insects were noticed during this era, and the emerging of angiosperms and pollinating insects is intimately linked (Field et al. 2020). Angiosperm emerged at cretaceous period last stages about 144-65 million years ago. During Cretaceous period, angiosperm established flowers and fruits in order to attract insect pollinators and secure their seeds respectively (Xing et al. 2020). Flowers developed with many different colors, scents, and sizes, mainly to attract insect pollinators. The moment an egg is fertilized, it grows into a seed, which is always covered by a fleshy fruit. Angiosperms as well as a wide range of new groups of insects emerged during this period. Some of the insects involved pollinating insects that played a role in evolution of angiosperms, and in most cases, flowers and their pollinators co-emerged (Xing et al. 2020). Angiosperms did not emerge from gymnosperms, however emerged in parallel with gymnosperms. In contrast, it is not clear what type of plant angiosperms raised from.
Several ways are used to acquire a normal color coding systems for determining flower colors, as well as to determine flower colors are worth being encoded. The optimal color vision of bee is made up of blue, UV, and green receptors whose perception positions are normal for determining flower colors (Krause et al. 2020). Flowers did not lead to evolution of bee color vision. This is because the green, blue receptors, and UV were still present in insects’ ancestors 580 million years ago and evolution of a flower took place 144 million years ago. Flowers colors adapted to bee color vision and angiosperms evolved to attract bees around 98.7 million to 64.3 million years ago (Poinar, Jr. and Chambers 2020). Angiosperm and pollinators co-evolved some physical appearance that make them interact successfully.
Reference List
Field, D., Benito, J., Chen, A., Jagt, J. and Ksepka, D 2020. ‘Late Cretaceous neornithine from Europe illuminates the origins of crown birds,’ Nature, vol. 579, no. 7799, pp.397-401.
Krause, D., Hoffmann, S., Hu, Y., Wible, J., Rougier, G., Kirk, E., Groenke, J., Rogers, R., Rossie, J., Schultz, J., Evans, A., von Koenigswald, W. and Rahantarisoa, L 2020. ‘Skeleton of a Cretaceous mammal from Madagascar reflects long-term insularity,’ Nature, vol. 581, no. 7809, pp.421-427.
Poinar, Jr., G. and Chambers, K 2020. ‘Cyathitepala papillosa gen. et sp. nov., a mid-Cretaceous fossil flower from Myanmar amber with valvate anthers,’ Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, vol. 14, no. 2, pp.351-358.
Xing, L., O’Connor, J., Schmitz, L., Chiappe, L., McKellar, R., Yi, Q. and Li, G 2020. ‘Hummingbird-sized dinosaur from the Cretaceous period of Myanmar,’ Nature, vol. 579, no. 7798, pp.245-249.