29_植物多样性1.pptVIP

Chapter 29 Plant Diversity I:How Plants Colonized Land Overview: The Greening of Earth Since colonizing land at least 475 million years ago, plants have diversified into roughly 290,000 living species. Plants supply oxygen and are the ultimate source of most food eaten by land animals. Green algae called charophytes are the closest relatives of land plants. Note that land plants are not descended from modern charophytes, but share a common ancestor with modern charophytes. Morphological and Molecular Evidence Land plants share key traits only with green algae charophytes: DNA comparisons of