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Biological Environment > Moss |
This site tells the story of the history of the universe. Click Earlier and Later to follow the story. Note: Many facts have been simplified to make them easier to understand. |
 Figure 1 |
Early in their history, plants could only grow in water. There were many benefits waiting for any plant which could grow up out of the water. It could get more sunlight, and so more energy, than its algal cousins who were trapped in the sea. A plant which could leave the water and live on land would escape from animals which ate it and find more room to grow.
But there was a price to be paid for these benefits. The plant had to evolve ways to make itself stiff enough to stick out of the water. It had to stop itself drying out and somehow it still had to get the water and minerals which it needed to grow. It also had to take the food it made from sunlight down to the rest of the plant. About 470 million years ago the first plants to evolve these features began to grow out of the water. The mosses and liverworts of today are similar to these early plants. They, like their ancient cousins, still need water in order to reproduce, since the sperm has to swim to the egg. |
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Biological Environment > Moss |
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Basic Information |
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