Plant Evolution and Diversity Resources

Websites

How Evolution Works

The UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology has a great website for students trying to understand how evolution works. Please excuse the MS Paint diagrams. Public universities have limited resources.

Plant Evolution Timeline

If you love colorful graphs talking about plant evolution, have we got the website for you. This timeline lets you see the different evolutionary events in the plant world.

Intro to Phylogenetics

Here's an introduction to phylogenetics from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. There are a lot of words on the page, but it's a good primer if you're curious about the flakiest of all the sciences. Wait, that's phyllogenetics. Nevermind.

Radiometric Dating

Combine the words "radioactive clock" and "Cambrian explosion," and you either have the best supervillain scheme ever or an article on radiometric dating. We'll let you decide for yourself.

Evolve or Perish Game

Imagine combining all the wonders of Chutes and Ladders with the glory of evolution. Then add tiles like "Hop ahead one on a giant mammal" or "Chomped on by a T. rex. Lose a turn." Then call it "Evolve or Perish." Download it for free, and have the most epic board game party ever.

Images

Carboniferous Slideshow

National Geographic is the king of awesome science-related slideshows. Check out this one with images of the Carboniferous Period.

Fossil Plant Pictures

The only thing better than pictures of plants are pictures of really old plants, arewerite? Enjoy it in all its plant-y goodness.

Videos

Michael Pollan TED Talk

Author Michael Pollan gives a TED talk about seeing the world from a plant’s point of view. And if we really are all pawn's in corn's evil plan of world domination, we're in big trouble.

David Attenborough Wins at Life

See the transformation as plants flower, fern fronds unfurl, and David Attenborough narrates in a short clip from the BBC's Life. We really wish he would narrate our lives. It would be like living Harry Potter.

Jonathan Drori TED Talk

Get up close and personal with pollen. Unless you're allergic, in which case, you're excused.