Cox, C. J.Li, BlaiseFoster, P. G.Embley, T. M.Civáň, Peter2014-10-242014-10-242014Cox CJ, Li B, Foster PG, Embley TM, Civan P., "Conflicting phylogenies for early land plants are caused by composition biases among synonymous substitutions" in Systematic Biology 2014, 63(2), 272-279.1063-5157http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5506Plants are the primary producers of the terrestrial ecosystems that dominate much of the natural environment. Occurring approximately 480 Ma (Sanderson 2003; Kenrick et al. 2012), the evolutionary transition of plants from an aquatic to a terrestrial environment was accompanied by several major developmental innovations. The freshwater charophyte ancestors of land plants have a haplobiontic life cycle with a single haploid multicellular stage, whereas land plants, which include the bryophytes (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses) and tracheophytes (also called vascular plants, namely, lycopods, ferns, and seed plants), exhibit a marked alternation of generations with a diplobiontic life cycle with both haploid and diploid multicellular stages and where the embryo remains attached to, and is nourished by, the gametophyte (Haig 2008).engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syt109