Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40447741›Full record

ArticleNature plants2025

Ordovician marine Charophyceae and insights into land plant derivations.

Lijing Liu, Jian Han, Zhifei Zhang, Qing Tang, Ke Pang, Ruiyun Li, Yasheng Wu, Hong Hua, Bin Guo, Chunfang Cai and 1 more

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Nature plants, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Remembrance of plants past.Nature plants · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Lijing LiuState Key Laboratory of Continental Evolution and Early Life, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environment, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China. liulijing@nwu.edu.cn.ORCID 0000-0001-9749-6206
Jian HanState Key Laboratory of Continental Evolution and Early Life, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environment, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.ORCID 0000-0002-2134-4078
Zhifei ZhangState Key Laboratory of Continental Evolution and Early Life, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environment, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.ORCID 0000-0003-0325-5116
Qing TangState Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Ke PangState Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China.ORCID 0000-0001-9995-7627
Ruiyun LiState Key Laboratory of Continental Evolution and Early Life, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environment, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
Yasheng WuKey Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. wys@mail.iggcas.ac.cn.ORCID 0000-0001-8271-2076
Hong HuaState Key Laboratory of Continental Evolution and Early Life, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environment, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
Bin GuoKey Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China, Ministry of Education, Provincial Key Laboratory of Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
Chunfang CaiNational Key Lab Petroleum Resource and Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0001-7483-2991
Robert RidingDepartment of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA. rriding@utk.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-7502-1031

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China) 42072127
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The emergence of land plants was a pivotal development in Earth history. It has been postulated that the evolutionary transition from freshwater streptophyte algae to land plants, or the canalization of plant meiosis, was completed during the Middle Ordovician (~460 Ma). However, the absence of undisputed streptophyte algal fossils (for example, Charophyceae) earlier than the late Silurian (~425 Ma) has obscured this link between streptophyte algae and land plants. Here we describe a marine Charophyceae fossil, Tarimochara miraclensis gen. et sp. nov., from early and middle Katian (Late Ordovician, ~453-449 Ma) marine limestones in northwestern China. This discovery demonstrates that at least some species of Charophyceae inhabited shallow normal marine environments at that time. Moreover, these early Charophyceae show that some key morphological innovations associated with an evolutionary transition between streptophyte algae and land plants had occurred before the early Katian. This provides crucial evidence relevant to the origins of land plants.

Indexed as

Biological EvolutionCharophyceaeEmbryophytaFossilsChinaPhylogeny

Identifiers

PMID40447741

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