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Palaeobotany

Fishing for the first plants

Nature volume 425, pages 248–249 (2003)Cite this article

Sifting of organic residues from ancient rocks has netted a catch of tiny fossils that provide clues about when plant life first appeared on land.

The significance of microscopic spores entombed in rocks dating from about 440–470 million years ago has puzzled investigators of early life. Are these spores proof that plant life existed on land long before the time suggested by other forms of fossil evidence? And, if so, what sorts of plants do they represent? On page 282 of this issue, Wellman et al.1 present direct evidence of the life forms that produced these enigmatic spores, and their findings lend credence to the notion that minute plants existed on land 470 million years ago.

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Figure 1: What the first land plants left behind.

C. H. WELLMAN

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  1. Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Paul Kenrick

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  1. Paul Kenrick
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Kenrick, P. Fishing for the first plants. Nature 425, 248–249 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/425248a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/425248a

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