John Orcutt<p><a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/African" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>African</span></a> <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/FossilFriday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FossilFriday</span></a></p><p>In the 1980s, a diamond mine in Orapa, <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/Botswana" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Botswana</span></a> 🇧🇼 began to yield gems of a different kind: <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/fossils" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fossils</span></a> of <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/Cretaceous" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Cretaceous</span></a> <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/flowers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>flowers</span></a> and <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/insects" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>insects</span></a>, including <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/flies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>flies</span></a>, <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/beetles" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>beetles</span></a>, <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/ants" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ants</span></a>, and <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/wasps" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wasps</span></a>. This <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/lagerst%C3%A4tte" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>lagerstätte</span></a> (a site of exceptional <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/fossil" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fossil</span></a> <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/preservation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>preservation</span></a>) records one of the most important <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/evolutionary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>evolutionary</span></a> transitions in the history of <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/life" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>life</span></a> on land: the spread of <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/flowering" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>flowering</span></a> <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/plants" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>plants</span></a> and their <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/coevolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>coevolution</span></a> with <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/insect" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>insect</span></a> <a href="https://ecoevo.social/tags/pollinators" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>pollinators</span></a>.</p><p>Photos from Rayner, 1993<br><a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA052550590_225" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.1052</span><span class="invisible">0/AJA052550590_225</span></a></p>