First conifers

Conifers appear in the fossil record about 310 million years ago, in the Late Carboniferous. The earliest group, the walchian conifers such as Walchia, had branches arranged like a Christmas tree, small needle-like leaves and cones, and grew on drier uplands beside the wet coal swamps. They are seed plants, so they spread by pollen carried on the wind and by seeds with a food store, and they do not need water for fertilisation.

That suited the cooler, drier world following the end of the coal forests. Conifers became dominant in many Permian landscapes, and their wood, resin and small leaves resisted drought. Most Permian conifers were lost in the Great Dying, but the group survived and expanded again in the Triassic, and in the Mesozoic they were a staple food of many long-necked dinosaurs. Today pines, spruces, firs, cedars and redwoods form vast northern forests and include the tallest and oldest trees on Earth.