Conclusion
Plants, as well as animals, have to juggle the performance of a number of biological functions. It's not that they perform each of their tasks as best as conceivably possible . It's that they perform them as best they can under the constraints of performing other tasks. The interesting thing about this is that, as you become more functionally complex, more options become possible, and more things that can do them. But, and here's the rub, their relative fitness decreases. What's curious about this is that it opens the world up in terms of possibilities because the differences between the good and the bad, which distinguish the living from the dead, are not that profound. And, therefore, things can evolve more quickly because the universe is there to be explored.
 The Devonian was a burgeoning time. A time when the greatest innovations of plants occurred and the greatest adaptive radiations of different lineages occurred. Professor Tiffany is going to be talk to you about this fabulous evolutionary history I'm sure. But, I just want to leave you with this image - Going from the earliest vascular plants and ending up with a plethora of the flowering species we see around us today, the history of life is a long history but it is a history mostly of extinction. 90% of all things that ever lived are dead. I intend to join them someday but not this morning. It's far to pretty outside to die right now! Thank you.
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Narrative Index
BioForum Index
