Figure 1.

The evolutionary history of plants. The abundance and diversity of plant fossils increase in the Silurian Period where the first macroscopic evidence for land plants has been found. There is evidence for the evolution of several plant groups of the late Devonian and early Carboniferous periods (homosporous ferns and gymnosperms). From the late Devonian through the base of the late Cretaceous period, gymnosperms underwent dramatic evolutionary radiations and became the dominant group of vascular plants in most habitats. Flowering plants probably also originated during this time, but they did not become a significant part of the fossil flora until the middle of the Cretaceous Period (Modified from Occhipinti et al., 2014).