Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Land plants evolved from a group of freshwater green algae, perhaps as early as 850 mya, [3] but algae-like plants might have evolved as early as 1 billion years ago. [2] The closest living relatives of land plants are the charophytes, specifically Charales; if modern Charales are similar to the distant ancestors they share with land plants, this means that the land plants evolved from a ...
These are the oldest known trees of the world's first forests. Prototaxites was the fruiting body of an enormous fungus that stood more than 8 meters tall. By the end of the Devonian, the first seed-forming plants had appeared. This rapid appearance of so many plant groups and growth forms has been called the "Devonian Explosion".
The world's tallest, thickest, largest, and oldest living trees are all conifers. The tallest is a coast redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens ), with a height of 115.55 metres (although one mountain ash, Eucalyptus regnans , allegedly grew to a height of 140 metres, [ 16 ] the tallest living angiosperms are significantly smaller at around 100 metres.
Living fossil. The coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago, until a living specimen belonging to the order was discovered in 1938. A living fossil is an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old ...
e. Evidence of common descent of living organisms has been discovered by scientists researching in a variety of disciplines over many decades, demonstrating that all life on Earth comes from a single ancestor. This forms an important part of the evidence on which evolutionary theory rests, demonstrates that evolution does occur, and illustrates ...
A domain contains one or more kingdoms. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown. In biology, a kingdom is the second highest taxonomic rank, just below domain. Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called phyla (singular phylum). Traditionally, some textbooks from the United States and Canada used a system of six kingdoms (Animalia ...
e. In biology, taxonomy (from Ancient Greek τάξις (taxis) 'arrangement' and -νομία (-nomia) ' method ') is the scientific study of naming, defining (circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given a taxonomic ...
As more and more fossil groups were found and recognized in the late 19th and early 20th century, palaeontologists worked to understand the history of animals through the ages by linking together known groups. [20] The Tree of life was slowly being mapped out, with fossil groups taking up their position in the tree as understanding increased.