Ancient fossil plant species in the world

Paleontologists at the Ice, Snow and Environment Research Institute said they discovered the oldest fossil of a plant in Argentina. It was an impressive discovery, because this plant fossil has 472 million years old.

Livewort species. (Internet photo)

Scientists at the Ice and Snow Environmental Research Institute in Mendoza (Argentina) have discovered fossils of a new plant species called cryptospore in the mountains of Sierras Subandinas, Central Andean Basin of Argentina. This plant of the liverwort is thought to have first appeared on Earth - 472 million years ago, 10 million years earlier than previous studies.

Earlier, other groups of scientists discovered fossils of a species of plants also belonging to the moss family in Saudi Arabia and the Czech Republic. These fossils were later identified to date about 462 million years and are considered the oldest plant discovered at the time.

The newly discovered cryptospore plant has a very simple structure without roots and cells. Scientists believe that plants play a precursor to the emergence of a range of other terrestrial plants hundreds of millions of years ago and cryptospore can be thought of as the ancestors of these plants. ground.

The team accidentally discovered the cryptospore when they were processing sediment samples collected from the Sierras Subandinas mountain area. In sediment samples, scientists found fossil spores of five different moss species. These protests date from about 473 million to 471 million years ago.

" The results of our study show that this plant has begun to diversify to adapt to the environment. It also proves that the first moss could appear on land earlier than spores. " Dr. Claudia Rubinstein, head of the study, said.