Researcher have recently discovered key fossil evidence for the origin of terrestrial plants.

The international academic journal "Nature-Plants" recently published online a long article by Associate Professor Liu Lijing and others from the Department of Geology at Northwestern University. The latest research findings, titled "Ordovician Marine Algae and Their Implications for the Origin of Land Plants," announce the discovery of the earliest known fossil of the algal phylum in the Tarim and Ordos Basins in China. This provides crucial fossil evidence for the hypothesis that land plants originated from algae in the Ordovician period.