Flowering plants existed on earth for more than 240 million years, as per research team checking samples from northern Switzerland. The research has been published in journal Frontiers in Plant Science. As per earlier studies, scientists dated existence of flowering plants for 140 million years on earth.

The species found from Switzerland and parts of Germany suggest diversity of flowering plants. The pollen from Middle Triassic period look exactly the same as those from Early Cretaceous period.

Flowering plants, also termed as angiosperms, bloomed on earth even before the dinosaurs. As per scientific studies, flowering plants had covered large part of earth around 90 million years back. However, scientists are not very sure about the ancestors of angiosperms.

The fossil records for the past 140 million years for flowering plants are continuous. The pollen grains were rare and the data can't be used to estimate the climate of earth during those times. University of Zurich Professor Peter Hochuli along with his team used confocal laser scanning microscopy to get three-dimensional high resolution images. With high resolution images, it was easier to compare and identify the fossils.