On 3 May 2002, scientists announced the discovery of the fossilised remains of the earliest flowering plant discovered to date. At least 125 million years old, and named Archaefructus sinensis (ancient fruit from China), it was found in a slab of stone in northeast China and is possibly the ancestor of all the flowering plants in the world today. Its closest living relative may be the water lilly, as the ancient plant lived in clear shallow water, with its flowers and seeds extending above the surface. The discovery was announced in the journal Science in a paper by David Dilcher (University of Florida), Ge Sun (Jilin University in Changchun, China) and other colleagues. This plant is regarded as the same age as Archaefructis lianoningensis, which had previously been dated as 144 million years. However, subsequent dating of the sediments in which it was found forced the age to be dropped to around 125 million years. Therefore the two plants are the same (geological) age. liaoningensis