Editing Conifer (section)

=== Fossil history ===

The earliest conifers appear in the fossil record during the Late [[Carboniferous]] ([[Pennsylvanian (geology)|Pennsylvanian]]), over 300 million years ago. Conifers are thought to be most closely related to the [[Cordaitales]]'','' a group of extinct Carboniferous-Permian trees and clambering plants whose reproductive structures had some similarities to those of conifers. The most primitive conifers belong to the paraphyletic assemblage of "[[Walchia|walchian conifers]]", which were small trees, and probably originated in dry upland habitats. The range of conifers expanded during the Early [[Permian]] ([[Cisuralian]]) to lowlands due to increasing aridity. Walchian conifers were gradually replaced by more advanced [[Voltziales|voltzialean]] or "transition" conifers.<ref name="Feng-2017">{{Cite journal |last=Feng |first=Zhuo |date=September 2017 |title=Late Palaeozoic plants |journal=Current Biology |volume=27 |issue=17 |pages=R905–R909 |bibcode=2017CBio...27.R905F |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.041 |pmid=28898663 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Conifers were largely unaffected by the [[Permian–Triassic extinction event]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nowak |first1=Hendrik |last2=Schneebeli-Hermann |first2=Elke |last3=Kustatscher |first3=Evelyn |date=2019-01-23 |title=No mass extinction for land plants at the Permian–Triassic transition |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=384 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10..384N |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-07945-w |pmc=6344494 |pmid=30674875 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and were dominant land plants of the [[Mesozoic]] era. Modern groups of conifers emerged from the Voltziales during the Late Permian through [[Jurassic]].<ref name="Leslie-2018">{{Cite journal |last1=Leslie |first1=Andrew B. |last2=Beaulieu |first2=Jeremy |last3=Holman |first3=Garth |last4=Campbell |first4=Christopher S. |last5=Mei |first5=Wenbin |last6=Raubeson |first6=Linda R. |last7=Mathews |first7=Sarah |date=September 2018 |title=An overview of extant conifer evolution from the perspective of the fossil record |journal=American Journal of Botany |language=en |volume=105 |issue=9 |pages=1531–1544 |doi=10.1002/ajb2.1143 |pmid=30157290 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Conifers underwent a major decline in the [[Late Cretaceous]] corresponding to the explosive [[adaptive radiation]] of [[flowering plant]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Condamine |first1=Fabien L. |last2=Silvestro |first2=Daniele |last3=Koppelhus |first3=Eva B. |last4=Antonelli |first4=Alexandre |title=The rise of angiosperms pushed conifers to decline during global cooling |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=17 November 2020 |volume=117 |issue=46 |pages=28867–28875 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2005571117 |bibcode=2020PNAS..11728867C |pmc=7682372 |pmid=33139543 |doi-access=free }}</ref>