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Published online 15 March 2001 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news010315-9
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Fall put leaves on trees
Leaves may have evolved in response to a massive drop in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
For the first 40 million years of their existence, land plants didn't bother to make leaves -- just green stems and small, spiny protrusions. Leaves only evolved, researchers now suggest, when a drop in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere meant that the benefits of intercepting more light began to outweigh the dangers of overheating.
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