CRETACEOUS ORIGINS. “Seagrasses belong to the order of Alismatales which includes 11 families of aquatic-freshwater species and 4 families that are fully marine. The marine families include the Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae, and Cymodoceaceae, and have originated in the Cretaceous period.”
http://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2148-11-8