Plants—the great survivors!
Résumé
The marine fossil record shows five mass extinctions at the Ordovician–Silurian, Frasnian–Famennian (Late Devonian), Permian–Triassic, Triassic–Jurassic and Cretaceous–Palaeogene transitions. However, only one of these significantly disrupted plant evolution. We clearly need to look again at what we really mean by mass extinctions events, especially in the context of the so‐called sixth mass extinction occurring today.