Green algae appear
The lineage that will eventually become every land plant branches off.
- When
- Known to
- ± 150 million years
- Era
- Neoproterozoic, Proterozoic
Green algae diverge from other photosynthetic eukaryotes late in the Mesoproterozoic, with fossils and molecular clocks converging around a billion years ago. One branch of them, the streptophytes, later leaves the water and gives rise to mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants. Every forest and every crop descends from this group.