Baltica cradle of early land plants? Oldest record of trilete spores and diverse cryptospore assemblages; evidence from Ordovician successions of Sweden

The origin of land plants is one of the most important evolutionary events in Earth’s history. The mode and timing of the terrestrialization of plants remains debated and previous data indicate Gondwana to be the center of land-plant radiation at ~ 470–460 Ma. Here we present the oldest occurrences of trilete spores, probably the earliest traces of vascular land plants yet recorded. The spores occur in Ordovician, Sandbian (455 million years...