Question

A fern differs from a moss in having
A. Swimming archegonia
B. Swimming antherozoids
C. Independent gametophytes
D. Independent sporophytes

Answer 1

Hint: We can define the term fern as an individual from a gathering of vascular plants that duplicate using spores and have neither seeds nor blossoms. It is already known that mosses are a species of non-vascular plants. Such types of plants generally produce the spores rather than the seeds. They typically do not develop blossoms, wood, or genuine roots. Rather than sources, all types of mosses have rhizoids.

Complete answer: Ferns (Pteridophytes) have sporophytes that are equipped for living freely. They can continue themselves as free-living creatures. Along these lines, it is simpler to perceive how the rotation of ages functions in a fern than in some different land plants' gatherings, similar to bryophytes and seed plants, where the periods remain genuinely associated with each other.
The existing pattern of the fern is regular with other non-seed vascular plants. The leafy green plant is the sporophyte. The heterosporous state is a further developed condition that appears to have advanced independently in a few plants' gatherings. The haploid spores are shaped by meiosis inside the sporangium.
An independent sporophyte is a predominant structure in all clubmosses, horsetails, greeneries, gymnosperms, and angiosperms that have been made to the current day.
So, the correct answer is “Option D”.

Additional Information:
Like the bryophytes, plants and plant partners are as yet confined to wet territories. Their flogged sperm need a meager film of water to swim between the antheridium and the archegonium.
The Antherozoids produce antherozoids with flagella, which help the antherozoids to swim in the water to arrive at the female organs. They are not efficiently evolved in ferns.
The gametophyte stage produces gametes (by mitosis), which wire to frame a zygote. A spore develops and develops into an independent gametophyte stage.

Note:
Pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes) are free-sporing vascular plants with a daily existence cycle with rotating, free-living gametophyte and sporophyte stages that are autonomous at development. The body of the sporophyte is all around separated into roots, stem, and leaves. The root framework is consistently unusual. The stem is either underground or flying. Pteridophytes show the rotation of age. They show prevailing sporophytic age with a subtle gametophytic age.