section_path: Evolution/Relationship to land plants
section_name: Relationship to land plants
paragraph_text: Relationship to land plants
  
  Fossils of isolated spores suggest land plants may have been around as long as 475 million years ago (mya) during the Late Cambrian / Early Ordovician period, from sessile shallow freshwater charophyte algae much like Chara, which likely got stranded ashore when riverine / lacustrine water levels dropped during dry seasons. These charophyte algae probably already developed filamentous thalli and holdfasts that superficially resembled plant stems and roots, and probably had an isomorphic alternation of generations. They perhaps evolved some 850 mya and might even be as early as 1 Gya during the late phase of the Boring Billion.