PLANTS
Belowleft: Reconstruction o[ a cycad o[ the genus Palaeocycas.
Permian, 245 million years ago, all the present continents had
joined to form the supercontinent of Pangaea.
In the Northern Hernisphere, a dry, at times desert, clima te
replaced the warrn, humid one of the Carboniferous periodo
The Pteridospermales, Cordaitales and Cycadeoidales beca me
the dominant elements of the flora.
In the Southern Hemisphere the evolution of plants took
another step with the appearance of the first conifers with the
genus Walchia, similar to the modern Araucarias. On the con-
tinent of Gondwana during this period appeared a flora corn-
pletely different, characterized by species unknown in north-
em lands. Thesé were forests of Glossopteris, a Pteridospermale
with simple, oval fronds, Equisetaceae as well as Cordaitales.
A new change in terrestrial vegetation took place at the be-
ginning of the Mesozoic era, during the Triassic, which began
about 230 million years ago. The reign of the gymnosperms
began, the Lycopsida and Equisetaceae tree forms disappeared
and the Pteridospermales were drastically reduced. At the same
time the Northern Hemisphere experienced a great diffusion
of the Cycadeoidales, with the genera Otozamites and Zamites,
the Ginkgoales and the conifers, with the first Araucarias, the
Cupressaceae, the Taxodiaceae. In the Southern Hemisphere
the Glossopteris disappeared.
From this period through all of the Triassic and the follow-
ing [urassic, for about 95 million years, there were no impor-
tant changes in terrestrial flora. During the Jurassic the known
flora is composed principally of Cycadeoidales and conifers,
among which appeared the first sequoias, the genera Araucaria
and Widdringtonia, both genera still in existence. As for the
Pteridophytes, they were by then reduced to the herbaceous
forms we know today. Some new groups of plants did appear
during this period; these were the bennettilaeans, gymno-
sperms that have since be come extinct. These plants had
feathery leaves and a cylindrical trunk whose principal char-
acteristic was the presence of a bisexual flower that anticipated
the flowers of future angiosperms. In the largest exarnples,
this flower grew to a size of 12 cm. (4.8 in.) in diameter and
was often located on the trunk between the scales left by fall-
ing leaves.
The appearance of angiosperms-flowering plants-without
a doubt the most revolutionary occurrence in the evolution of
plant life, took place during the Mesozoic era, in the Creta-
ceous period, about 130 million years ago. From the Mesozoic
forest made up of conifers, Cycadeoidales, bennettilaeans and
Ginkgoales the transformation was made in this period to for-
ests of angiosperrns, already quite similar to modern-day veg-
etation. The development of angiosperms happened suddenly
at the beginning of the Cretaceous, although it is possible that
the first representatives appeared even earlier, during the [u-
rassic, if not even the Triassic.
The angiosperms are without question the most highly
evolved of plants. They became, beginning in the Cretaceous,
the dominant plant group because of their greater ability to
expand and their ability to adapt to their surroundings, be-
cause of their specialized leaves and the extreme differentia-
tion of their reproductive structures. The oldest known angio-
Below right: Reconstruciion o[ a Benneitiale o[ the genus Williamsonia.
sperms are from the Early Cretaceous and were found in
Greenland, where plants that survive today, including a type
of poplar, existed together with forms that later disappeared.
The appearance of the angiosperms and the subsequent
changes in terrestrial vegetation had an enormous impacto New
groups of animals adapted to the new vegetation (one need
think only of insects); others became extinct. One can say that
the birth of the angiosperms marked the arrival of the modern
age, from the point of view both of plants and of animals.
During the course of the Cretaceous these plants became
increasingly abundant and differentiated. Even during the early
part of the period there appeared plant genera that exist to-
day, such as the magnolia, the eucalyptus, the willow and the
larch. During the second half of the period many new families
made their appearance, most of which are still alive. Among
the monocotyledons appeared the Gramineae and the palms;
among the dicotyledons, the fíg, the vine, the birch, the oak,
the Leguminosae and the chestnut.
From this point onward, which is to say from the beginning
of the Tertiary about 65 million years ago, terrestrial vegeta-
tion did not undergo other significant evolutionary changes.
Small variations were the consequence of minor geographic
and clima tic variations. During the Paleocene, the first epoch
of the Tertiary period, these plants were practicalIy identical
to that of today: the angiosperms then constituted 90% of the
flora, with genera equal to or very similar to our own.
PLATE I
Carboniferous plants from the deposits of Mazon Creek, lIIinois:
(1) Pecopteris; (2) Pecopteris; (3) Neuropteris; (4) Pecopteris; (5)
Neuropteris; (6) Oligocarpia; (7) Asterotheca; (8) Odontopteris; (9)
Odontopteris; (10) Alethopteris; (11) Calamites; (12) Neuropteris; (13)
Cyclopteris; (14) Annularia.
PLATE 11
Miocene plants from the deposits of Kumi in Eubea:
(1) Myrica; (2) Sequoia; (3) Quercus; (4) Glyptostrobus; (5) Quercus; (6)
Quercus; (7) Ulmus; (8) Cinnamomum; (9) Myrica; (10) Ulmus; (11) Celtis.
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