Editing Algae (section)

===Relationship to land plants===
Fossils of isolated [[spore]]s suggest [[land plant]]s may have been around as long as 475&nbsp;[[million years ago]] (mya) during the [[Late Cambrian]]/[[Early Ordovician]] period,<ref>{{cite news |title=When plants conquered land |first=Ivan |last=Noble |date=18 September 2003 |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3117034.stm |publisher=BBC |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061111170428/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3117034.stm |archive-date=11 November 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wellman |first1=C. H. |last2=Osterloff |first2=P. L. |last3=Mohiuddin |first3=U. |year=2003 |title=Fragments of the earliest land plants |journal=Nature |volume=425 |issue=6955 |pages=282–285 |doi=10.1038/nature01884 |pmid=13679913 |bibcode=2003Natur.425..282W |s2cid=4383813 |url= http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/106/ |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170830194441/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/106/ |archive-date=30 August 2017}}</ref> from [[sessility (motility)|sessile]] shallow [[freshwater]] [[charophyte]] algae much like ''[[Chara (alga)|Chara]]'',<ref name="Kenrick-1997">{{cite book |last1=Kenrick |first1=P. |last2=Crane |first2=P.R. |title=The origin and early diversification of land plants. A cladistic study |isbn=978-1-56098-729-1 |year=1997 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington}}</ref> which likely got stranded ashore when [[riverine]]/[[lacustrine]] [[water level]]s dropped during [[dry season]]s.<ref name="Raven-2001">{{cite journal |author=Raven, J.A. |author2=Edwards, D. |year=2001 |title=Roots: evolutionary origins and biogeochemical significance |journal=Journal of Experimental Botany |volume=52 |issue=90001 |pages=381–401 |doi=10.1093/jexbot/52.suppl_1.381 |pmid=11326045 |doi-access=free}}</ref> These charophyte algae probably already developed filamentous [[thalli]] and [[holdfast (biology)|holdfast]]s that superficially resembled [[plant stem]]s and [[root]]s, and probably had an isomorphic [[alternation of generations]]. They perhaps evolved some 850&nbsp;mya<ref name="Knauth-2009">{{cite journal |first1=L. Paul |last1=Knauth |first2=Martin J. |last2=Kennedy |date=2009 |title=The late Precambrian greening of the Earth |journal=Nature |volume=460 |issue=7256 |pages=728–732 |doi=10.1038/nature08213 |pmid=19587681 |bibcode=2009Natur.460..728K |s2cid=4398942 }}</ref> and might even be as early as 1&nbsp;[[Gya (unit)|Gya]] during the late phase of the [[Boring Billion]].<ref name="Strother-2011">{{cite journal |first1=Paul K. |last1=Strother |first2=Leila |last2=Battison |first3= Martin D. |last3=Brasier |first4=Charles H. |last4=Wellman |date=2011 |title=Earth's earliest non-marine eukaryotes |journal=Nature |volume=473 |issue=7348 |pages=505–509 |doi=10.1038/nature09943 |pmid=21490597 |bibcode=2011Natur.473..505S |s2cid=4418860 }}</ref>