The largest fossil of a flower preserved in amber has been described in detail 150 years after it was first studied – revealing that it was captured as it released its pollen. Analysis of that pollen has led to its reclassification as a different species.
The fossilised flower was originally discovered and described in 1872, says Eva-Maria Sadowski at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, Germany. The five-petalled flower, which is about 28 millimetres in diameter, is encased in …