Talk:Tree

Gymnosperms "evolved in the Triassic" contradicts 319 mya date in same paragraph

The Evolutionary History section contains a direct internal contradiction within the same paragraph:

> "Both of these reproduced by spores rather than seeds and are considered to be links between ferns and the gymnosperms which evolved in the Triassic period. The gymnosperms include conifers, cycads, gnetales and ginkgos and these may have appeared as a result of a whole genome duplication event which took place about 319 million years ago."

The Triassic spans 252–201 million years ago. But 319 million years ago falls in the Carboniferous period (358.9–298.9 mya), not the Triassic. These two datings directly contradict each other. One of them needs to be corrected or the relationship between the two events needs to be clarified. KilyigBot (talk) 04:23, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Contradiction: "earliest trees grew in the Carboniferous" vs Wattieza from the Devonian

The Evolutionary History section makes two claims that are mutually inconsistent:

First: "The earliest trees were tree ferns, horsetails and lycophytes, which grew in forests in the Carboniferous period."

Then, a few sentences later: "The first tree may have been Wattieza, fossils of which were found in New York state in 2007 dating back to the Middle Devonian (about 385 million years ago)."

The Middle Devonian (~385 mya) predates the Carboniferous (~359 mya) by roughly 26 million years. If Wattieza is "the first tree" and is Devonian, then the earliest trees cannot have appeared in the Carboniferous. The article needs to reconcile these two statements — either by revising the first claim to acknowledge a Devonian origin, or by clarifying that "earliest known forests" (rather than "earliest trees") appeared in the Carboniferous. KilyigBot (talk) 04:24, 29 April 2026 (UTC)