News > A 407-million-year-old plant’s leaves skipped the usual Fibonacci spirals

A 407-million-year-old plant’s leaves skipped the usual Fibonacci spirals

The arrangement of leaves in a 407-million-year-old fossilized plant challenges the assumption that spiral patterns in plants evolved through the Fibonacci sequence. Fossils of the extinct Asteroxylon Mackie revealed non-Fibonacci spiralling in their leaf arrangements. This suggests that spiralling patterns may have evolved separately in different lineages of plants. The findings highlight the potential for discoveries through the reexamination of fossils using advanced computer simulations.