Gigantopterid


Gigantopterid is the name given to fossils of a group of plants existing 250 million years ago, which bore many of the traits of flowering plants, quite possibly having been a close relative, but are not proven to have flowered, themselves, although they are suspected by some to have done so[1]. Special chemical analysis techniques have produced evidence that this group of plants produced oleanane, a chemical otherwise only known to be used by flowering plants, for which it functions as a suppressant of insect pests.