Maybe it feels counter-intuitive to some that sharks were there before trees…
But I hope it is intuitive that there was water long before there was soil? Then it’s just a small step to realize life in water has had a much longer time to develop.
That’s debatable, most sources estimate mosses to have been there before lichens. It’s all estimations spanning millions of years of course.
Mosses have leaves with chlorophyll though! Way more interesting in the context of there being trees or not. Lichens are just scabs on a rock.
Lichens -- a combo of fungus and algae -- can grow on bare rocks, so scientists thought that lichens were some of the first organisms to make their way onto land from the water, changing the planet's atmosphere and paving the way for modern plants. But a closer look at the DNA of the algae and fungi that form lichens shows that lichens likely evolved millions of years after plants.
Obnoxious creatures they are, always trying to take the shine from mosses. Mosses don’t need symbiosis because they’re perfectly able to survive harsh conditions by themselves. There’s been hardly a need to change their perfect designs for millions of years.
Lichens just make new symbiotic relationships whenever they feel like it. They’re a promiscuous lot. Promiscuous scabs on a rock.
fossilesque
bryophile