摘要
Ginkgo, or the maidenhair tree, is considered a living fossil, as it wasfound to have existed early in the Jurassic period about 170 million years ago. However, a more than100 million-year gap in the fossil record since the Jurassic period has hindered a fullunderstanding of its evolution. Recently Zhou Zhiyan, a CAS member with the CAS Nanjing Institute ofGeology and Paleontology, and Zheng Shaolin, a researcher from Shenyang Institute of Geology andMineral Resources under the Ministry of Land and Resources, found the much-sought missing linkbetween the ancient and modern plants from the 121-million-year-old stratum of the Yixian formationin northeast China.
