TNRTB Archive - Retained for reference information

Botanists have validated RTB’s biblical creation model claim that bona fide land plants appeared relatively early in Earth’s history (Gen.1:11-12). In a deep core drill in Oman botanists found clumps of spores packaged in cuticles (external plant structures made up of epidermal cells) dated to be 475 million years old. These structures resembled modern liverworts, small moss-like plants that grow in moist, shaded areas. This discovery supports RTB’s model, which places the appearance of the first land plants between the formation of the great continental land masses (1.0 to 0.6 billion years ago) and the appearance of the swarms of complex sea animals (0.54 to 0.3 billion years ago).

Charles H. Wellman, Peter L. Osterloff, and Uzma Mohiuddin, “Fragments of the Earliest Land Plants," Nature, 425 (2003), pp. 282-285

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v425/n6955/full/nature01884.html

D. S. Heckman, et al, “Molecular Evidence for the Early Colonization of Land by Fungi and Plants,” Science, 293 (2001), pp. 1129-1133 (gives evidence for land plants as early as 700 million years ago)

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/293/5532/1129.abstract

Paul Kenrick, “Fishing for the First Plants,” Nature, 425 (2003), pp. 248-249.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v425/n6955/full/425248a.html

RTB article: Connections or Facts&Faith article on the first plants