Question

Why are pteridophytes better adapted to dry land than bryophytes? Were pteridophytes always less abundant than phanerogamic plants?

Answer 1

Although bryophytes and pteridophytes have gametes tha depend on water for fertilization, the emergence of conducting vessels in this last group facilitated life in a terrestrial environment. The conducting vessels of pteridophytes collect water from moist soil and distribute it to the cells.

Bryophytes do not have this option and depend entirely on the water that reaches the aerial part of the plant and, as a result, they need to live in humid or rainy places.

Before the evolutionary development of phanerogamic plants (plants that have seeds), pteridophytes predominated in the terrestrial environment. The large pteridophyte forests of the Carboniferous period (named after the pteridophytes) are responsible for the formation of coal deposits, mainly in Europe, Asia and North America. The Carboniferous period occurred between 290 and 360 million years ago and was part of the Paleozoic Era.