Plant Roots Built Beachhead for Life on Land
Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - 14:01
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Plants - even relatively small ones - played a crucial role in establishing a beachhead for life on land, according to recent work by an international team from China, the U.S., the U.K., and the University of Saskatchewan. The team found that early in the history of Earth's terrestrial biosphere, a small plant called Drepanophycus, similar to modern club mosses, was already deeply rooted. This kept soils from washing away and even allowed build up as the resilient above-ground parts of the plants caught silt during floods. These plants - typically a metre long at most - helped form deep, stable soils where other plants could thrive.