Plants.
Quick Hits
10 random key ideas.
1.
Red algae did not descend from green algae. Both lineages split over a billion years ago, then adapted independently to different light environments.
2.
From History: ~1.55 Billion Years Ago (+/- 5 million)
About 1.55 billion years ago, bikonts evolved two flagella to pull themselves forward. These tiny rowboats led to all plants and is not an animal-fungi ancestor.
3.
From History: 1.65 Billion Yeas Ago (+/- 50 million)
Around 1.65 billion years ago, major eukaryotic lineages diverged, setting the ancestral paths that would eventually lead to plants, fungi, and animals.
4.
From History: 1.5 Billion Years Ago (+/- 100 million years)
Around 1.5 billion years ago, red and green algae diverged, establishing two major photosynthetic lineages from which all modern plants ultimately descend.
5.
From History: ~201 Million Years Ago
The Triassic–Jurassic extinction cleared ecological space for dinosaurs to become the dominant land animals of the Jurassic.
6.
From History: 270 Million Years Ago (+/- 5 million years)
Ginkgo represents an ancient seed-plant lineage going back 270 million years ago.
7.
From History: 2 Billion Years Ago (+/- 100 million years)
About 2 billion years ago, eukaryotic cells are defined by a membrane-bound nucleus and internal organelles. Their emergence created the structural foundation for complex life.
8.
From History: By 130 Million Years Ago
Pollen evolved about 350 million years ago, by 130 million years ago, flowers improved pollination by attracting partners like bees.
9.
From History: 3.73 Billion Years Ago (after LUCA)
Prokaryotes are nucleus-free cells that include both bacteria and archaea — the two lineages that split shortly after LUCA.
10.
From History: 66.04 million years ago (+/- 900 years).
Before, during, and after the K–Pg extinction: a thriving Late Cretaceous world of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, birds, and flowering plants gives way to the asteroid strike and global collapse that ended the age of non-avian dinosaurs.
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