Fossils of earliest land plants discovered in Argentina
The earliest plants to have colonised land have been found in Argentina.
The discovery puts back by 10 million years the colonisation of land by plants, and suggests that a diversity of land plants had evolved by 472 million years ago.
The newly found plants are liverworts, very simple plants that lack stems or roots, scientists report in the journal the New Phytologist.
That confirms liverworts are likely to be the ancestors of all land plants.
The appearance of plants that live on land is among the most important evolutionary breakthroughs in Earth's history....
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The discovery puts back by 10 million years the colonisation of land by plants, and suggests that a diversity of land plants had evolved by 472 million years ago.
The newly found plants are liverworts, very simple plants that lack stems or roots, scientists report in the journal the New Phytologist.
That confirms liverworts are likely to be the ancestors of all land plants.
The appearance of plants that live on land is among the most important evolutionary breakthroughs in Earth's history....