Can scientists  shed light on Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery" - the Big Bang of early plant evolution? Flowering plants evolved quite quickly into five groups, according to scientists at the University of Florida and the University of Texas at Austin (ScienceDaily, November 27, 2007). They say that, 130 million years ago, a "Big Bang" (a comparatively short 5 million years) resulted in the five major flowering plant lines we see today:

"Flowering plants today comprise around 400,000 species," said Pam Soltis. "So to think that the burst that give rise to almost all of these plants occurred in less than 5 million years is pretty amazing -- especially when you consider that flowering plants as a group have been around for at least 130 million years."

Many plants do not flower. Ferns, for example, reproduce without flowering (hence the folk term "fern seed" for something you will never see). Flowering plants are generally thought to have appeared much later than the ancient Carboniferous era ferns that produced the coal that is often mined today. According ScienceDaily, while botanists have long recognized that flowering plants diversified swiftly into three branches shortly after they appeared, "the latest research clears the picture by showing that all plants fall into five major lineages that developed over the relatively short period of 5 million years, or possibly even less." It's not clear why the diversification occurred, with some suggesting climate change and others new or better traits. Or, as the press release says,

As for the diversification's cause, it remains mysterious, Pam and Doug Soltis said.

A friend points out that if you take the press release and snip out everything between the "abominable mystery" and "remains mysterious", what have we learned? Only that key developments in life are NOT the long, slow, gradual process that Darwin envisioned - and needed - but rather "Big Bangs". And there is so much that we do not know. This is a time for exploration, not dogmatism.