FERNS
DID YOU KNOW THAT...?
• Ferns are a very old group of plants. They first appeared on Earth in the middle Devonian Era about 360 million years ago, just before the Carboniferous Era. Most of the modern fern families we see today first appeared in the Late Cretaceous about 45 or 50 million years ago during the age of the dinosaurs. • Ferns appeared long before the first flowering plants evolved. The early fossil record shows that giant tree ferns and cycad palms were the only plants for millions or tens of millions
of years. The organic matter of these ferns and cycads accumulated to such a thickness that they were deposited in deep layers. When these were combined with the Earth’s heat they were compressed and converted to create the coal, gas and oil deposits that we use as our main sources of energy today. • Ferns exist on all continents except Antarctica. • Ferns belong to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. • Ferns reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers.
