EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Evidence shows that plants evolved from freshwater green algae, a protist. The similarities between green algae and plants is one piece of evidence. They both have cellulose in their cell walls, and they share many of the same chemicals that give them color.

Detailed explanation-2: -Today it is widely accepted that land plants (embryophytes) evolved from streptophyte algae, also referred to as charophycean algae. The streptophyte algae are a paraphyletic group of green algae, ranging from unicellular flagellates to morphologically complex forms such as the stoneworts (Charales).

Detailed explanation-3: -The evidence suggests that land plants evolved from a line of filamentous green algae that invaded land about 410 million years ago during the Silurian period of the Paleozoic era.

Detailed explanation-4: -Mesostigma viride, a unicellular freshwater alga that appeared ∼800 million years ago, is a living descendant of the ancestor of all green algae and land plants, and belongs to the earliest diverging green plant lineage discovered to date.