Angiosperms are the cornerstone of most terrestrial ecosystems and human livelihoods^1,2. A robust understanding of angiosperm evolution is required to explain their rise to ecological dominance. So far, the angiosperm tree of life has been determined primarily by means of analyses of the plastid genome^3,4. Many studies have drawn on this foundational work, such as classification and first insights into angiosperm diversification since their Mesozoic origins^5–7. However, the limited and biased sampling of both taxa and genomes undermines confidence in the tree and its implications. Here, we build the tree of life for almost 8,000 (about 60%) angiosperm genera using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes⁸. This 15-fold increase in genus-level sampling relative to comparable nuclear studies⁹ provides a critical test of earlier results and brings notable change to key groups, especially in rosids, while substantiating many previously predicted relationships. Scaling this tree to time using 200 fossils, we discovered that early angiosperm evolution was characterized by high gene tree conflict and explosive diversification, giving rise to more than 80% of extant angiosperm orders. Steady diversification ensued through the remaining Mesozoic Era until rates resurged in the Cenozoic Era, concurrent with decreasing global temperatures and tightly linked with gene tree conflict. Taken together, our extensive sampling combined with advanced phylogenomic methods shows the deep history and full complexity in the evolution of a megadiverse clade.

• Premise of the study: Tribe Cardueae (thistles) forms one of the largest tribes in the family Compositae (2400 species), with representatives in almost every continent. The greatest species richness of Cardueae occurs in the Mediterranean region where it forms an important element of its flora. New fossil evidence and a nearly resolved phylogeny of Cardueae are used here to reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of this group.

• Methods: We performed maximum parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic inference based on nuclear ribosomal DNA and chloroplast DNA markers. Divergence times and ancestral area reconstructions for main lineages were estimated using penalized likelihood and dispersal–vicariance analyses, respectively, and integrated over the posterior distribution of the phylogeny from the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis to accommodate uncertainty in phylogenetic relationships.

• Key results: The phylogeny shows that subtribe Cardopatiinae is sister to the remaining subtribes, and subtribes Carlininae and Echinopsinae appear as consecutive sister‐clades to the Carduinae/Centaureinae. Tribe Cardueae is inferred to have originated around the Mid Eocene in West Asia, which is also the ancestral area of most subtribes within Cardueae. Diversification within each subtribe began during the Oligocene‐Miocene period.

• Conclusions: Most diversification events within Cardueae are related to the continuous cycles of area connection and division between the Anatolian microplate and the western Mediterranean Basin during the Oligocene‐Miocene and with the uplift of the Himalayan range from the Miocene onward. From these two regions, thistles dispersed and colonized the rest of the continents (e.g., the New World, Africa, and Australia), most likely during the colder Pliocene‐Pleistocene period.