The first seeds
Plants pack an embryo with food inside a protective coat, and stop needing standing water to reproduce.
- When
- Known to
- ± 5 million years
- Era
- Devonian, Paleozoic
Elkinsia and its relatives, around 370 million years old, produce seeds enclosed in cupules — the earliest known. A seed carries its own food supply and can survive drying, so reproduction no longer depends on swimming sperm and damp ground. Plants can finally colonise dry uplands, and seed-bearing lineages come to dominate the world's flora.