1. Plant evolution Proterozoic – Green algal evolution Mid paleozoic – First land plants Late paleozoic – Coal forests: early vascular plants Latest paleozoic – seed plants, early Gymnosperms Mesozoic – Gymnosperms (and reptiles) dominant Late mesozoic – first flowering plants Cenozoic – coevolution of flowering plants and insect pollinators

2. Ancestral Green Algae BryophytesFerns & allies Gymnosperms Angiosperms Embryos Vascular tissue Seeds Flowers Overview of Plant Evolution

3. Bryophyte-like plants evolved from Charophycean Green Algae Chara Coleochaete A Coleochaete B Parka (Ordovician) From Berkeley Time Machine

5. Seedless Vascular Plants Vascular tissue improves sporophyte efficiency Dominant plants from late Devonian through early Permian *Equatorial coal forests

7. Early Devonian landscape

8. Carboniferous (-300 my) coal forest model

9. Imagine a dragonfly with a wingspan of over 1 meter

10. Carboniferous forest

11. Devonian plant roots

12. First seed plants Pregymnosperms Early Permean Pangea – dry, continental climates

13. Seed fern seeds Trigonocarpus from Mazon Creek formation (Carboniferous)

14. Evolution of flower & fruit First fossils: late Jurassic period of Mesozoic era Diversified during Cenozoic era Coevolution with pollinators

15. Oldest flowering plant fossil

16. Fruit fossil

17. Primitive existing flowers