Abstract
Macroevolution of mosses is considered from viewpoints of the fossil record, relative orientations of continents, paleoclimatology, morphology, and distributional phenomena. Incomplete evidence indicates: 1) mosses are offshoots of early rhyniophyte and zosterophyllophyte stock; 2) Sphagnales were set off well before the end of the Permian; 3) Bryales, in the broadest sense, were diverse and widely distributed by Permian time in mesic to wet, temperate sites; 4) diversity among all groups of bryophytes was considerably reduced by the PermoTriassic desert episodes on most major land masses; 5) the present-day moss generic flora has changed little since the close of Cretaceous time and has a preponderance of drought-resistant groups some of which extend back to the Paleozoic; and 6) present day diversity reflects radiate evolution by survivors of the desert episodes into new niches created by the ascendancy of angiospermous vegetation.
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Miller, H.A. (1977). A Geobotanical Overview of the Bryophyta. In: Romans, R.C. (eds) Geobotany. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1674-0_6
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