London ? Orchids, it appears, were blooming when dinosaurs roamed Earth, new research indicates.

The findings offer the first clear insights into the evolutionary history of the flowering plants, which has long been shrouded in mystery.

“Since the time of Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been fascinated by the spectacular adaptations to insect pollination exhibited by orchids,” Santiago R. Ramirez of Harvard University and his colleagues wrote in the Aug. 30 issue of the journal Nature.

Ramirez and colleagues discovered ancient orchid pollen on the back of an extinct species of stingless bee that had been preserved in a piece of amber from the Dominican Republic.

An analysis indicated the bee dated back between 15 million and 20 million years old. By analyzing the pollen the insect was carrying, Ramirez and his colleagues determined that the most recent common ancestor of today’s orchids dated back about 80 million years, but the rich diversity of the plants seen today probably exploded at about the time the dinosaurs died out, some 65 million years ago.