摘要
While many characters have been used to define the nature of the angiosperms in living plants, the list must be reduced to a single character that can be found in the fossil record in order to proceed with our search for the earliest flowering plants.
While many characters have been used to define the nature of the angiosperms in living plants, the list must be reduced to a single character that can be found in the fossil record in order to proceed with our search for the earliest flowering plants. That single character should be the closed carpel （functionally or morphologically） as identified from the female reproductive organ preserved in the fossil record. This feature was an important step in the genetics of the early evolution of the angiosperms.
