Living Fossils
- 1 September 1944
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 100 (2592), 179-181
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.100.2592.179
Abstract
Fossil land plants, including angiosperms, particularly of the late Mesozoic and early Tertiary, have evolved conservatively. Many common American trees are practically unchanged and might be termed ''living fossils. ''Animal life, on the contrary, has altered radically. The earliest plants were probably small thallus forms. Vascular plants occur in the Devonian, and seed plants in the late Carboniferous or Permian. Plant fossils are related to the present spp. of the same areas, since plants are incapable of locomotion. Thus, fossil distribution is a good geological indicator.This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Spores of Cambrian PlantsScience, 1937