Nigel Chaffey
There is a widespread belief that everything in/of/from/about America is bigger, better, faster, etc, than anything from elsewhere in the world. That is probably the best example of spin over substance ever foisted on an unsuspecting world, and is a true testament to the power of marketing and public relations.
Take, for example, the arresting title ‘This Could Be the Oldest Flowering Plant Ever Found in North America’. So prevalent is that view of American supremacy and so conditioned are we to its acceptance that many of us will have read that text and mentally added a comma after the words ‘ever found’ (and the importance of comma placement is legendary). The news story concerns a re-assessment of fossil plants stored away in the USA’s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Originally thought to be a fern, reinspection and analysis by USA-based Nathan Jud and Leo Hickey now confirms that the fossil is an angiosperm (a flowering plant) between 125 and 115 million years old (Ma) – the Lower Cretaceous – named Potomacapnos apeleutheron.
While this is amongst the oldest flowering plants found in America, it is not the oldest known on Earth. That honour goes – currently! – to the unnamed bearers of ‘angiosperm-like pollen’ and the described genus Afropollis from Middle Triassic deposits in Switzerland that are 247.2–242.0 Ma, as unearthed by Peter Hochuli and Susanne Feist-Burkhardt. The pollen was studied using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), exploiting the autofluorescence still present in such ancient organic-walled microfossils. Quite dramatically, this announcement pushes back the origin of flowering plants another 100 Ma into history, which must be rather gratifying for the Swiss–German team. So, whilst national self-belief is a good thing to have (rather like patriotism), it mustn’t blind us to the fact that other countries may have more legitimate claims to ‘biggest and best’ (and which might stray into nationalism). And anyway, it’s only because of ‘accidents of history, geography and politics’ that scientific discoveries are tied to a particular place and claimed for, and/or by, individual countries. Science – and its discoveries – belongs to us all. There, I’ve said it (and with flowers…).
[As usual, Mr Cuttings has tried to be a little mischievous in this item. But it probably won’t halt the activities of those whose lifelong goal is to seek out the biggest, best, etc, so expect further archaefloral revelations from the good old US of A in due course (and maybe further afield…), as more store-rooms replete with rocky riches are rummaged through, re-examined, and re-assessed! And if a good bit of healthy, old-fashioned competition and rivalry can spur on all those engaged in the process of science to even greater things, then so much the better – for us all! – Ed.]
Alun Salt
