Discuss the gradual appearance of significant ECOLOGICAL synapomorphic traits (advance shared ecologically functional properties among taxa) that have evolved during the colonization of land by plants, from simpler (e.g. liverworts, mosses, ferns, horsetails) to more complex taxa (e.g. gymnosperms, angiosperms). Hint: (i) think about the environmental challenges that plants had to face when colonizing land and how they coped with such changes by evolving specific adaptations. (ii) Each clade (e.g. included within the generic “Bryophytes,” “gymnosperms,” “angiosperms”) represents the accumulation of numerous structural and physiological characteristics that allowed land plants to radiate into diverse ecological niches. Also must giver sources.