For the first time, researchers have characterized the genome arrangement of tree ferns, which sheds new insight into how ferns evolved. Land plants evolved 470 million years ago from algae and have ...

Plants and the animals that eat them have evolved together in fascinating ways, creating a dynamic interplay of survival strategies. Many plants have developed physical and chemical defenses to fend ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Unfurling fiddlehead of the Christmas fern (_Polystichum acrostichoides_). Jacob S. Suissa, CC BY-ND Imagine a photograph of your ...

Research by Assistant Professor Jacob S. Suissa at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is revealing complexity in how ferns have evolved. Instead of the vascular structure inside fern stems ...

When leaves shift to the dorsal side of the fern’s stem, a smiley face pattern emerges in the stem’s vascular structure, as seen in this sample of a tobacco fern. Research by Assistant Professor Jacob ...

Imagine a photograph of your great-grandparents, grandparents and parents side by side. You’d see a resemblance, but each generation would look distinct from its predecessors. This is the process of ...

Imagine a photograph of your great-grandparents, grandparents and parents side by side. You'd see a resemblance, but each generation would look distinct from its predecessors. This is the process of ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Jacob S. Suissa, University of Tennessee (THE CONVERSATION) There are few forms of the ...

From the tiniest microbe to towering ferns, evolution is the engine behind life’s incredible diversity. Through genetic drift, natural selection, and gene flow, species adapt, diversify, or disappear.

Land plants evolved 470 million years ago from algae and have since reshaped our world. Throughout their evolution, ferns have undergone a series of changes that have helped them survive on land. For ...