410-million-year-old plant fossil sheds light on Earth's ecological shift

NANJING -- Chinese scientists have discovered a tiny plant species dating back about 410 million years in Duyun city, Southwest China's Guizhou province, offering new insights into the process of "plant colonization of land."

According to researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Zosterophyllum plant they discovered stands at just 45 millimeters in height, with its sporangial spike measuring only 5.8 to 10.8 millimeters. In contrast to the typical length of 100 to 200 millimeters for similar plants from that era, its diminutive size is exceptionally rare.

The researchers believe that the small plant, requiring less nutrition and reproductive investment, likely had a short lifespan and could complete its entire life cycle quickly. This adaptability is thought to have been suited to the turbulent environment of the time, serving as a survival strategy for plants in that period.

Around 430 million years ago, plants began their transition from ocean to land, a process that significantly transformed the Earth's ecological environment, according to experts.

"Terrestrial plants in their early stages of development likely relied on evolving diverse survival strategies to overcome complex environmental pressures, complete the 'plant colonization of land,' and ultimately clothe the Earth in greenery," said Huang Pu, an assistant researcher at the institute, who led the study.

The findings were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Wednesday.