One of the more interesting and most challenging questions about plant life in water is the history of the varieties. The history of the varieties can provide a wealth of information about how plants and crops have grown over time. A particular variety can give clues to the kinds of climates it has lived in, what kind of water it would need, where it might thrive (tolerable or even enviable) and how it may be passed on to future generations. There is a great deal of interest in the early history of plant life in water because many of these varieties are intimately related to the livelihoods of human civilizations today.
There are two major periods of early diversification in Earth’s history that are particularly relevant to how we can study plant life in water. The first period occurred during the Triassic period. This is the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and plant life was becoming increasingly diverse. The most dominant vegetation in this era was made up of forests like conifers and sponges. Herbaceous woody plant life proliferated in places now known as the United States and Canada.
The second major period in Earth’s history is the Paleozoic era. This is the era when dinosaurs roamed the earth and they gave rise to many categories of plant life. One of the most significant events in the history of plant diversity is the Great Devoure Event. This is when dinosaurs became extinct, starting the long slide down the extinction curve that doomed many animal species to extinction. One group of dinosaurs became completely extinct: the Velociraptoromorphs. Other categories of dinosaurs were also severely reduced and their remains were found in different parts of the world.
How did these species remains become transformed into plant matter? Velociraptors and other carnivores fed on plant matter to sustain their own diets. The small plant-eating dinosaurs had to eventually adapt if they were going to survive the long slide down the extinction wave. Other types of dinosaurs had to undergo some sort of sexual selection, which may have driven certain plant species to be more widespread than others. In time, even these odd varieties became more common.
The Jurassic period brought a massive change in the history of plant diversification. This was the time when giant sauropod dinosaurs roamed the land, wiping out more species than can be seen today. These animals came from the land of the north and there is reason to believe that they caused a significant increase in the number of grasslands. But this was only a brief event and land plants soon took back most of the land that these meat-eaters had eaten up.
The next part of the dinosaur story involved extinction. At the same time, the earth began to warm up due to solar radiation and the ocean waters grew denser. This combination caused the land bridge to collapse. What remained of the land bridge was covered with water and eventually sunk completely. This phenomenon is called “concentration of water”. This meant that a limited number of plant species could exist in the landscape because there was very little open space.
The next stage in land bridge development came with the dawn of a new technological development. New industries were built along rivers and coastlines and new ways of extracting raw materials from the land were created. One such way was for farmers to plant seeds in the water and let them grow into a plant. As these plants matured they were harvested and used as food or as fuel for power or other large machines.
The final stage in the history of plant life in the water marked the beginning of the industrial revolution. With the dawn of this new era, farmers were able to produce more food with fewer physical works. The pace of development eventually surpassed that of the dinosaurs and diversification began again. Today we find tropical plant life thriving in many places.