Seed ferns experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago, paleontologists find According to a research team led by paleontologists from the University of Vienna, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times. Using new methods, the fossilized plant Furcula granulifer was identified as an early forerunner. The leaves of this seed fern species already exhibited the net-like veining in the late Triassic (around 201 million years ago). The study was recently published in the journal New Phytologist.
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-....seed-ferns-complex-l