Around 450 million years ago one of the most authoritative development in the history of Earth come : plants colonized the land for the first time . Now a dodo has been found that could resemble the first specie that developed this capacity , from which all modern Din Land works descend . Most unusually , the fossil comes not from around the fourth dimension of this epical event , but from more than double as long ago .
Professor Shuhai Xiaoof Virginia Tech announced the discovery of fossilized green seaweed in billion - class - former sea aqueous rocks from Liaoning Province , north - easterly China , inNature Ecology and Evolutionunder the nameProterocladus antiquus . P. antiquusexceeds the late criminal record for dark-green seaweed by some 200 million years .
Like many paleobotanists , Xiao imagine all commonwealth plants evolved from gullible seaweed , which continue to compete in the sea with brown and red seaweeds , both of which flush it to make the same transition to nation . However , he acknowledged in astatement , " Not everyone hold with us ; some scientist think that gullible plants started in rivers and lakes , and then conquered the sea and land later . ”
Dr Qing Tang , who brought the fossils to Xioa ’s attention noted , “ These seaweeds display multiple branches , upright growths , and specialized cells eff as akinetes that are very vernacular in this character of fossil . ”
As a predecessor of thetallest redwoodor the sinful sweep ofquaking aspen , Xiao ’s fossils are underwhelming , being just 2 millimeters ( 0.08 inches ) long . Proverbs about mighty oaks and tiny acorn are undersell the true statement .
Some ofP. antiquus’descendants , however , appear to go by the principle that when you are on to a expert affair , stick to it .
“ There are some modern dark-green seaweeds that reckon very similar to the fossils that we determine , ” Xiaosaid . “ A group of modern green seaweed , know as siphonocladaleans , are particularly similar in shape and size to the fossil we see . ” Intriguingly , P. antiquusbears considerable law of similarity to the next oldest fossil of this type , P. major , which has been obtain in 800 million - year - old rocks at Svalbard . TheP. majorfossils were less well preserve , however , making check they are the same species difficult , and boosting Hope we will determine a lot more from the raw discovery .
Red seaweeds fossils day of the month back 1.05 billion year ago , but previously no gullible seaweeds had been found of similar ages . Molecular clocks suggest the first green photosynthesizing plant come along somewhere between 1,600 and 720 million years ago , but scientists regain such a full range unsatisfying and hope fossil discoveries will narrow it down .
The breakthrough raises the interrogative of why green seaweeds took so long to move onto teetotal land , given the speed with which they conform to most environs once they did .
