Caption for GN17177C.jpg

Picture shows 385-million-year-old fossil plant parts of Runcaria heinzelinii. The seed-like structures are about the length of short fingernail and include a pollen-catching head that projected above spiralling, protective tissues that were flanked by a four-lobed structure called a cupule. The fossils appear to be missing a few early-seed-defining characteristics, including an opened tube connecting the pollen landing pad to the inner reaches of the female reproductive tissues. This design suggests that the earliest ancestral seed plants were wind pollinated. MUST CREDIT Feli Giraldo and Philippe Gerrienne.Ê