中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所机构知识库

Data of Paleozoic and some Early Triassic vascular land plant fossils from South China are synthetically analyzed, revealing evolutionary characteristics of Paleozoic vascular land plant diversity. Vascular land plant diversity keeps increasing in the Paleozoic as a whole. The Silurian witnessed the earliest evolution and initial diversification of land plants. From the Early Devonian to the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian), the great development, diversification, and differentiation really occurred in vascular land plants, with fluctuations of diversity, rapid replacement of the plant types, and an all-out takeover of terrestrial ecological niches. From the Early Permian, land plant diversity dramatically increased, and reached a climax in the Middle-Late Permian. Comparisons between late Paleozoic marine and terrestrial biodiversity reveal co-evolution of the late Paleozoic animals and plants as well as the individual evolutionary patterns of sea/land ecosystems. Vascular land plant diversity dramatically declined in the Frasnian as a result of the F/F event, and the end-Permian mass extinctions completely turned over the phytogroups.