Selaginella was hyperdiverse already in the Cretaceous

What is it about?

Spike mosses (genus Selaginella) are the most species-rich group of today’s lycophytes, a lineage of vascular plants that also contains the club mosses and quillworts. 14 distinct Selaginella fossils from Cretaceous amber of Myanmar now suggest that spike mosses comprised many different species already c. 100 million years ago. The number of fossil species preserved in amber concurs with numbers of spike moss species found in certain tropical rainforests today where they are most specious.

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