There's more than one way to build a tree, 374m-year-old fossils reveal | Susannah Lydon

Fossils from China show that evolution found an alternative - and ultimately overly-complicated - way to increase the size of the earliest tree trunks

In the world of knee-high land plants 400m years ago, the battle to grow tall was won by plants which found biomechanical solutions to fight gravity. Vascular plants had already evolved a plumbing system, allowing them to transport water, and the food produced by photosynthesis, around the plant. The water-conducting cells in the xylem - dead, hollow and stiffened by the polymer lignin - also afforded them some structural support. But there are limits to the height that a plant can grow with a stem of fixed girth.