Researchers at Virginia Tech in the United States have discovered a miniature fossil, which may be the key to understanding how plants evolved into their current forms. Source of seaweed fossils under the microscope
| USA Today
This miniature seaweed fossil is about 1 billion years old. This is a kind of algae called Proterocladus antiquus, which is the oldest known green seaweed. . The discovery has been published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution published this week.
This seaweed fossil is about the size of a flea and was discovered in northern China by a postdoctoral researcher at Virginia Tech. After checking his findings with his supervisor, he discovered seaweed fossils with the help of an electron microscope and agreed that the discovery was of great significance.
Previously, the oldest fossil of green seaweed was about 800 million years ago.
Many scientists believe that plants on land evolved from green algae. They migrated from the ocean to freshwater and then adapted to the drought conditions on land. The results of this study strongly support this conclusion.
wrote in a statement of the discovery: "These fossils are related to the ancestors of all modern land plants we see today. The evolution of land plants dates back to 450 million years ago. This discovery not only shows green Seaweeds have evolved into multicellular organisms at least 1 billion years ago. It also shows that it takes longer for marine plants to adapt and evolve into their current terrestrial form than currently thought."
Provide indispensable food and oxygen for life on earth. This discovery has taken another crucial step in the research of green plants.
