@zwol @johncarlosbaez also looking at wikipedia, yeah, that checks out. or at least doesn't outright contradict that, idk. a lot of this early evolutionary history is pretty fuzzy, we can only guess from comparison of the plants we have today, as well as (very importantly!) genetic evidence to help us reconstruct those "family trees"/cladograms. sometimes people argue about the exact order in which everything split off, or things get re-organized as new evidence rolls in. there's sometimes this "established narrative" that gets taught and happens to sound good, but may or may not be outdated, depending on who you ask.

@johncarlosbaez i see @zwol has already made a similar comment. but let me add a bit more:

> (Apparently in some mosses it's the other way around.)

mosses are, uh "early" in land plant evolution history. the generations are more on equal footing, but there was a switch from the haploid generation being the green part, to the diploid generation being the green part, and the switch was made in the transition from mosses to ferns, the, uh, "next step" of land plant evolution.
(the scare quotes are there because technically, evolution doesn't "work like that", much like modern apes aren't the ancestor to humans)

for anyone wanting to learn more about this kind of stuff, this is pretty standard biology lecture material. it's typically this pair of introductory lectures that goes through the evolutionary history of plants/animals, respectively. iirc the professor dave explains youtube channel has them in a playlist video format.

@johncarlosbaez i have to point out that the alternating generations thing isn't just a fern thing. all (well, at least land) plants do this, even if the haploid generation is reduced to 'barely noticable' in most of them. like, 'you'll need a microscope' barely noticable.

it's very visible with mosses though, where the green part of the moss is the haploid gametophyte, and the "stalks" that stretch up from the green parts are the diploid sporophytes.

@typeswitch now that you mention it, i think there isn't a company called 'sauron' yet. brb i'm gonna raise some ridonkulous amount fo VC money real quick