Over 450 million years ago, plants began the epic transition from water to dry land. Among the first pioneers were the ancestors of humble hornworts, a group of small, unassuming plants that have ...

“The first thing I did was Google ‘what is a hornwort’,” Li, now an evolutionary biologist at the Boyce Thompson Institute in New York, recalls, laughing. Hornworts are one of the most ancient plant ...