Evolution

**CobraStallone** · May 19, 2009, 04:40 PM

I have a doubt I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. When did terrestian plants began to exist?, did they evolved from adapting algae or something or did they exist back then when there where only cratures in the sea?

**Nikos** · May 19, 2009, 04:47 PM

http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/evolution/plantEvolution.shtml

The earliest land "plants"
For 1500 million years photosynthetic organisms remained in the sea. This is because, in the absence of a protective ozone layer, the land was bathed in lethal levels of UV radiation. Once atmospheric oxygen levels were high enough the ozone layer formed, meaning that it was possible for living things to venture onto the land.

The seashore would have been enormously important in the colonisation of land. In this zone algae would have been exposed to fresh water running off the land (and would have colonised the freshwater habitat before making the move to terrestrial existence). They would also be exposed to an alternating wet and desiccating environment. Adaptations to survive drying out would have had strong survival value, and it is important to note that seaweeds are poikilohydric and able to withstand periods of desiccation.
The earliest evidence for the appearance of land plants, in the form of fossilised spores, comes from the Ordovician period (510 - 439 million years ago), a time when the global climate was mild and extensive shallow seas surrounded the low-lying continental masses. (These spores were probably produced by submerged plants that raised their sporangia above the water - wind dispersal would offer a means of colonising other bodies of water.) However, DNA-derived dates suggest an even earlier colonisation of the land, around 700 million years ago.
Bryophytes
The earliest photosynthetic organisms on land would have resembled modern algae, cyanobacteria, and lichens, followed by bryophytes (liverworts & mosses, which evolved from the charophyte group of green algae). Bryophytes are described as seedless, nonvascular plants. Their lack of vascular tissue for transport of water and nutrients limits their size (most are between 2 and 20 cm high). Bryophytes don't have typical stems, leaves, or roots, but are anchored to the ground by rhizoids. They can grow in a wide range of environments and are poikilohydric: when the environment dries so does the plant, remaining dormant while dry but recovering rapidly when wetted. These features make them important pioneer species.