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Ferns. Phylum Pterophyta. How did we get here?. Evolution is the derivation of progressively more complex forms of life from simple ancestors; Charles Darwin proposed that natural selection is the principle mechanism by which evolution takes place. Natural Selection.
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Ferns Phylum Pterophyta
How did we get here? • Evolution is the derivation of progressively more complex forms of life from simple ancestors; Charles Darwin proposed that natural selection is the principle mechanism by which evolution takes place.
Natural Selection • Natural selection is the gradual, non-random process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution. • The term "natural selection" was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be compared with artificial selection, what we now call selective breeding.
The stepping stones • From the somewhat simple Bryophytes… • To Phylum Rhyniophyta and Phylum Zosterophyllophyta • Both have no living species - only known through the fossil record • Phylum Lycophyta (club mosses) • PhlyumPsilotophyta (whisk fern) • Phylum Sphenophyta (horsetails) • Phylum Pterophyta (ferns) • Order Ophioglossales ( • Order Marattiales ( • Adaptations along the way: • Polysporangiates (branched sporophytes, dominant sporophyte generation) • Tracheids (internal wall thickening = earliest vascular tissue) • Specialized water conducting cells
Main fern features • Without dichotomous branching • Differentiated into roots, stems and leaves • Spores can be homosporous (bisexual) or heterosporous (microspores/male and megaspores/female) • Megaphyll leaves (veins and leaf gaps) • Protostele (single column of vascular tissue) • Sporangia on sporophylls = fertile fronds (some clustered in sori)
Adult sporophyte • Underside of Leaf (megaphyll) • Close up of sori (sorus) below Indusia are special outgrowths of the leaf to protect the sori
Mature gametophyte • The prothallus (haploid = cells with one set of chromosomes)