The land spread of plants is a defining milestone in the evolution of life on Earth. Colonization is associated with a number of important innovations in plant structure, anatomy and biochemistry that are transforming global biogeochemical cycles and climatic conditions on the planet.

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Chinese researchers found that complex plants colonized the land 444 million years ago. This is a little earlier than you think.

Paleochemists studied mercury isotopes in Paleozoic sediments. Analysis of ancient soil deposits showed that: colonization of land by complex plants took place 14 million years ago – At the beginning of the Silurian era.

The scientists analyzed the mercury-199 and mercury-200 fractions in rocks formed during different periods of the Paleozoic era, 520-250 million years ago. Measurements have shown that low isotope fractions are characteristic not only for deposits of the middle Devonian period, but also for rocks formed 444 million years ago. Previously, paleontologists relied on the age of the fingerprints of Cooksonia, the oldest fossil land plant in the world.

• The first plants, resembling trees in their structure, appeared about 400 million years ago, in the middle of the Devonian period.
• Primitive vascular plants appeared in the middle of the Silurian era, about 430 million years ago.
• After that, one of the greatest ecological transformations in Earth’s history took place – the colonization of the soil by plants and the saturation of the atmosphere with a record amount of oxygen.

Researchers can only guess what these prehistoric plants looked like. However, complete root systems and tree trunks have been preserved in the fossils. They have little resemblance to modern ones – they had photosynthetic bark instead of leaves, and the trees themselves looked like giant corn or reeds.