THE CONQUEST OF LAND BY THE PLANTS

Abstract

One of the more fascinating topics in Biology is the one that refers to about the forms of life that were able to conquest the land surface. The first organisms capable of this feat were the plants, accompanied by fungi and bacteria. The presence of vegetation on land made it possible for the animals to follow suit, providing the mean for increasingly more complex ecosystems to be generated. With no plants our own evolution would have been impossible. The pioneer plants dared to face adverse environmental conditions which abound on the continents: dryness (at least occasional), sunstroke and an excess of UV radiation, brusque thermal oscillation, wind, etc. and they were able to overcome this challenge by evolutionary changes in their morphology, physiology and reproduction.