Colonization of Land by Plants Pushed Back by 10 Million Years

The latest issue journal New Phytologist, has an interesting paper on the evolution of plants, the arguments of which push back Colonization of land by plants, by 10 million years. The startling discovery was made by a team of researchers led by Dr Claudia Rubinstein of the Department of Palaeontology at the Argentine Institute of Snow, Ice and Environmental Research in Mendoza, Argentina. The place of discovery was Rio Capillas, in the Sierras Subandinas in the Central Andean Basin of northwest Argentina.  The newly discovered plants are fossils of liverworts. The discovery also affirms that liverworts are the ancestors of all land plants.

The authors’ moot that diverse land plants had evolved by 472 million years ago. The researchers' best estimate is that the colonization of land could have occurred during the early Ordovician period (488 to 472 million years ago) or even during the late Cambrian period (499 to 488 million years ago).