The discovery revealed new fruits of angiosperms (flowering plants), about 87 million years old, that lived during the Upper Cretaceous geological period.

The new specimens were collected in a fossiliferous deposit – a geographical area with fossils – in the locality of Seadouro, in the municipality of Vagos, FCTUC revealed in a statement sent to the Lusa news agency.

According to Mário Miguel Mendes, the specimens "are very well preserved," and, although it is not possible to extract much information about the floral organs, there are traces of possible stamen filaments and tepals.

The observed characteristics also allowed specialists to include the new angiosperms “in the order Fagales and assign them, without any doubt, to the genus Endressianthus,” explained the researcher from the Center for Earth and Space Research of the University of Coimbra (CITEUC) and professor at the Fernando Pessoa University (Porto).

Although the fruits are being described as a new species of the genus Endressianthus, their position within the family remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, scientists recognised “close similarities” with a family of plants that includes the common hazel and the Turkish hazel.

The paleobotanist believes that “studies using synchrotron radiation X-ray tomography and comparison with elements of modern flora will allow for more precise information and, perhaps, some approximation to the family.”

According to the researchers, angiosperm fruits of the genus Endressianthus had already been reported from the Upper Cretaceous of Portugal, in Mira and Esgueira (Aveiro).

However, the species differs from previously described forms and has been classified as belonging to an earlier geological period, explicitly stating "that this group of angiosperms was already well established in the floras of the Upper Cretaceous period in Portugal about 87 million years ago".

The scientists also point to evidence that these plants "were common in arid or semi-arid ecosystems".

The ongoing work is being developed in partnership with researchers from the National Museum Prague (Czech Republic) and has received funding from CITEUC and the Czech Grant Agency.