How and when did plant life evolve?

Question

Any thoughts folks. I don't here much about this topic.

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_evolution

Have a look here. It's a wonderful article.

475 Million Years ago, the first primitive plants move onto land having evolved from green algae living along the edges of lakes. They are accompanied by fungi, and very likely plants and fungi work symbiotically together.

Further back:
1000 Million Years ago, multicellular organisms appear: initially colonial algae, and later seaweeds, living in the oceans.

And even further back:
3000 Million Years ago, photosynthesizing cyanobacteria evolve; they use water as a reducing agent, thereby producing oxygen as waste product.

I guess those are three of the key stages in the evolution of modern plants.

Answer 2

Plants in the sea (algae, etc) originated thousands of millions of years ago, no-one is quite sure how.... The earliest known fossils are stromatolites (algal mats) which grew in lagoons during the Pre Cambrian Era. Plants colonized the land during the latest Silurian / early Devonian era (over 400 million years ago), probably making the "evolutionary leap" from the sea to land via tidal mudflats that dried out as the seal level fell. Some of the earliest known land plant fossils (I believe, the roots) are from Rhynie in Scotland.

Answer 3

It didn't according to the creationists - have you ever heard such $hit???

The earliest plant life was stuff that actually can still be found in pools in Australia - i can't remember how long ago, but we are talking 1000s of millions of years ago.
It came about when one-celled organisms began to split and they formed long chains, no-one actually knows why, but it will be down to environmental change - this is the reason virtually every organism evolves.

Answer 4

precisely precise. There are unmarried celled vegetation, coated among the algae. an enticing actuality is that the chloroplasts, that are the systems in vegetation which incorporate chlorophyll and wherein photosynthesis happens, are very comparable in shape to particular photosynthesising micro organism, the cyanobacteria. it is subsequently available that the 1st unmarried celled vegetation have been amoeba-like creatures which absorbed cyanobacteria in a symbiotic dating. Evolutionary biologists could face as much as asserting a fern developed into an apple tree. extremely they could say that a fern and an apple tree share an straight forward ancestor.

Answer 5

If you mean land plants, the earliest known seems to be Cooksonia from the Silurian period.

Answer 6

It came from outer space... or at least, that's a theory - not one I particularly believe, but it's food for thought.

Answer 7

as soon as Arsenal kick off....