Huang Pu, Wang Jia-Shu, Wang Yi-Ling, Liu Lu, Zhao Jing-Yu, Xue Jin-Zhuang
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, People's Republic of China.
Geological Museum of China, Beijing 100034, People's Republic of China.
Proc Biol Sci. 2025 Jan;292(2038):20242337. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.2337. Epub 2025 Jan 15.
Plants have evolved different life-history strategies to overcome limited amounts of available resources; however, when and how divergent strategies of sexual reproduction evolved in early land plants are not well understood. As one of the notable and vital components of early terrestrial vegetation, the Zosterophyllopsida and its type genus reached maximum species diversity during the Pragian (Early Devonian; 410.8-407.6 million years ago). Here we describe a new species, sp. nov., based on well-preserved specimens from the Pragian-aged Mangshan Group of Duyun, Guizhou Province, China. The new plant is characterized by its small size, K-shaped branching and tiny spikes with 5-10 sporangia. This plant is most likely -selected, completing its whole lifespan in a short time, and such a strategy contributes to reproduction in a suitable window time. In contrast, most other species of and the zosterophyllopsids on a broader scale are larger in body size and have greater investments in fertile tissues, reflected in the size and total number of sporangia. We argue that the zosterophyllopsids probably benefited from the divergence of various life-history strategies and thus constituted a major part of the Early Devonian floras.
植物已经进化出不同的生活史策略来克服有限的可用资源；然而，早期陆地植物中不同的有性繁殖策略是何时以及如何进化的，目前还不太清楚。作为早期陆地植被的显著且重要的组成部分之一，工蕨纲及其模式属在布拉格期（早泥盆世；4.108亿至4.076亿年前）达到了最大的物种多样性。在此，我们基于来自中国贵州省都匀市布拉格期芒山组保存完好的标本，描述了一个新物种，新种。这种新植物的特点是体型小、呈K形分枝以及带有5 - 10个孢子囊的微小穗状花序。这种植物很可能是r - 选择的，在短时间内完成其整个生命周期，这样的策略有助于在合适的窗口期进行繁殖。相比之下，工蕨属的大多数其他物种以及更广泛范围内的工蕨纲植物体型更大，并且在可育组织上有更多投入，这体现在孢子囊的大小和总数上。我们认为，工蕨纲可能受益于各种生活史策略的分化，从而构成了早泥盆世植物群的主要部分。
