"Mosses Make Two Different Plants From the Same Genome..."

"... and a Single Gene Can Make the Difference."

[W]hat if, immediately after sex, meiosis was postponed, and a multicellular diploid organism grew as it does in animals. But then, instead of making haploid eggs and sperm that must fuse to form another diploid organism, the diploid creature made a haploid reproductive cell called a spore that simply grows asexually into a multicellular haploid organism? When mature, this haploid multicellular organism would then make eggs and sperm by mitosis (instead of meiosis, as in our ovaries and testes), and voila! The circle of life is complete.

Via Metafilter, where the question is asked: "Astonishing secret or dry old factoid freshman level biology professors tell a classroom of kids who aren't listening?"