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Microscopic photo of spores (in red) of Selaginella. The large three spores at the top are megaspores whereas the numerous smaller red spores at the bottom are microspores. Megaspores, also called macrospores, are a type of spore that is present in heterosporous plants. These plants have two spore types, megaspores and microspores.
Seed plant gametophytes are extremely reduced in size; the archegonium consists only of a small number of cells, and the entire male gametophyte may be represented by only two cells. [27] Differentiation of the spores. All spores the same size (homospory or isospory). Horsetails (species of Equisetum) have spores which are all of the same size ...
Whether spores arose before or after land plants, their contributions to topics in fields like paleontology and plant phylogenetics have been useful. [18] The spores found in microfossils, also known as cryptospores, are well preserved due to the fixed material they are in as well as how abundant and widespread they were during their respective ...
Heterospory evolved due to natural selection that favoured an increase in propagule size compared with the smaller spores of homosporous plants. [2] Heterosporous plants, similar to anisosporic plants [clarification needed], produce two different sized spores in separate sporangia that develop into separate male and female gametophytes.
Microscopic photo of spores (in red) of Selaginella. The large three spores at the top are megaspores whereas the numerous smaller red spores at the bottom are microspores. Microspores are land plant spores that develop into male gametophytes, whereas megaspores develop into female gametophytes. [1]
Flowering plants contain microsporangia in the anthers of stamens (typically four microsporangia per anther) and megasporangia inside ovules inside ovaries. In all seed plants, spores are produced by meiosis and develop into gametophytes while still inside the sporangium. The microspores become microgametophytes (pollen).
Trimerophytes comprised plants with large clusters of downwards curving terminal sporangia that split along their length to release their spores and had centrarch xylem strands (e.g., Psilophyton). [19] Research by Kenrick and Crane that established the polysporangiophytes concluded that none of Banks' three groups were monophyletic.
Cryptospores are microscopic fossilized spores produced by embryophytes (land plants). They first appear in the fossil record during the middle of the Ordovician period, as the oldest fossil evidence for the colonization of land by plants. A similar (though broader) category is miospores, a term generally used for spores smaller than 200 μm.