Ferns are an ancient group of plants. Ferns are non-flowering vascular plants with roots, stems and complex leaves. There are about 12,000 Species of Ferns which come in a variety of shapes and sizes. From the fossil record, scientists consider that land plants emerged from the water around 475 million years ago. By about 400 million years ago, vascular plants had separated from non-vascular plants, and soon after this, ferns separated off. By about 350 million years ago, some of the major families of ferns are seen in the fossil record. This makes ferns older than most land animals some invertebrate animals were on land by this time and far older than dinosaurs.Several extinct groups of the Carboniferous Period and the Permian Period (299
