Question

Study the given chart showing the evolution of plants. Answer the following questions:

1. Identify the plant which acts as an immediate ancestor of both ferns and conifers.
2. Name the nearest ancestors of flowering plants.
3. Name the most primitive group of plants.
4. Psilophytan provides common ancestry to which classes?
5. Name the common ancestor of psilophytan and seed ferns.
6. Name the common ancestor of mosses and tracheophytes.

Answer 1

1. Psilophyton
2. Seed ferns (pteridosperms)
3. Mosses (bryophytes)
4. Psilophyton provides common ancestry to ferns and to the seed-plant line (conifers/seed ferns → ultimately flowering plants).
5. Immediate/common ancestor - Psilophyton (seed ferns are shown branching from Psilophyton). If the question means a deeper/shared ancestor, that would be the Tracheophyte ancestors.
6. Chlorophyte ancestors