Gongle Shi Newly discovered plant fossils from China, dating back more than 125 million years, may help to establish which seed plants evolved into modern flowering plants. Flowering plants, known as angiosperms, dominate most land ecosystems, providing food and habitats for a variety of animal species. The hallmarks of angiosperms are the carpel, the female reproductive organ that encloses the ovules, and a second outer layer of tissue covering the seeds. This second outer layer – known as the angiosperm second integument – is a characteristic feature of angiosperms that isn’t seen in other modern seed plants. However, Peter Crane at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia and his colleagues think some ancient seed plants did possess a similar and related structure. They excavated several hundred well-preserved, now-extinct, seed plant fossils from a fossilised peat deposit in Inner Mongolia, China, that formed about 125.6 million years ago. The team then examined the fossil plants’ anatomy.