The major diversification of flowering plants (angiosperms) in the Early Cretaceous, between about 130 and 90 million years ago, initiated fundamental changes in terrestrial ecosystems and set In motion processes that generated most of the extant plant diversity. New palaeobotanical discoveries, combined with recent phylogenetic analyses of morphological and molecular data, have clarified the initial phases of this radiation and changed our perspective on early angiosperm evolution, though important issues remain unresolved.