Unlike previous Zosterophyllum species, the plant body of the newly discovered Zosterophyllum baoyangense is approximately 45.4 mm in total length, with spikes ranging from 5.8 to 10.8 mm in height.

from which other land plants are thought to have originated. “I think [the paper] is interesting for a few reasons,” says paleobiologist Philip Donoghue of the University of Bristol who was not ...