Plants are multicellular organisms which produce their own food through a process called photosynthesis. The first fossil plants and fungi appear in the fossil record about 480 MYA, although scientific data retrieved through molecular and protein evaluations indicate they have been around much longer. Aqueous plants may have been present 1000 MYA, colonizing the land about 700 MYA, while the first flowering plants occur about 140 MYA. Plant fossils include roots, wood, bark, leaves, seeds, fruit, pollen, spores, phytoliths and amber. These fossils are important, both for the information they give us about Earth’s past, and for their beauty. |
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