Why are pteridophytes better adapted to dry land than bryophytes? Were pteridophytes always less abundant than phanerogamic plants?
Although bryophytes and pteridophytes have water-dependant gametes for fecundation the emergence of conductive vessels in this last group facilitated life in a terrestrial environment. The conductive vessels of the pteridophytes collect water from the moist soil and distribute it to the cells. Bryophytes do not have this option and they depend entirely on the water that reaches the aerial part of the plant and so they need to live in humid or rainy places. Before the ascension of the phanerogamic plants (plants that present seeds) the pteridophytes were the plants that 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 is part of the Paleozoic era.
