Fern plants. Like all other vascular plants, the diploid sporophyte is the dominant phase or generation in the life cycle. The gametophytes of ferns, however, are very different from those of seed plants. They are free-living and resemble liverworts, whereas those of seed plants develop within the spore wall and are dependent on the parent sporophyte for their nutrition. A fern gametophyte typically consists of: Ferns first appear in the fossil record in the early Carboniferous period. By the Triassic, the first evidence of ferns related to several modern families appeared. The great fern radiation occurred in the late Cretaceous, when
Dominant white and for every trait, all animals inherit one allele from each parent. The original or "normal" form of "KIT", which is expected in horses without dominant white spotting, is called the "wild type" allele. Thus, a dominant white horse has one "KIT" allele with a mutation associated with dominant white spotting, and one wild type "KIT" allele. Dominant white horses were first described in scientific literature in 1912. Horse breeder William P. Newell described his family of white and near-white horses to researcher A. P. Sturtevant of Columbia University: "The colour of skin is white or so-called pink, usually with