A team of scientists detailed what could have been the world's first flowering plant, offering clues to how such organisms came to be the way they are now.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the researchers detailed Montsechia vidalii in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The angiosperm specimen is about 130 million years old, whereas such flowering plants were believed to be relatively young.

Many believed Archaefructus sinensis to be the "first flower," and like Montsechia, it was aquatic.

"A 'first flower' is technically a myth, like the 'first human,'" study co-author David Dilcher, a paleobotanist at Indiana University, said in a press release. "But based on this new analysis, we know now that Montsechia is contemporaneous, if not more ancient, than Archaefructus."

Donald H. Les, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, was not involved in the study, but wrote an accompanying commentary in the journal PNAS.

"The world of 120 million years ago was one of dynamic biological processes. During that time the flowering plants emerged as the dominant global floristic element, a transformative event that ultimately altered the character of the entire planet," he wrote, according to The Times. "Understandably, the rapid rise of angiosperms has intrigued paleoecologists and evolutionary biologists, who have strived to elucidate underlying explanations for their successful radiation."

The study authors plan to explore more deeply the evolution of angiosperms, to see how they spread about and became a diverse species.

Said Dilcher in the release, "There's still much to be discovered about how a few early species of seed-bearing plants eventually gave rise to the enormous, and beautiful, variety of flowers that now populate nearly every environment on Earth."