09/02/2023
🌿Before any plants were taller than three feet, and before any animal with a backbone had made it out of the water, the earth was dotted with two-story-tall, silo-like fungi called prototaxites.
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Scientists identified the Godzilla of fungi – a giant, prehistoric fossil that has evaded classification for more than a century. A chemical analysis has shown that the 6-metre-tall organism with a tree-like trunk is a fungus that lived between 420 million and 350 million years ago, at a time when millipedes and worms were among the first creatures to make their home on dry land.
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As you might imagine from their ancient origins, fungi have played a critical role in shaping Earth’s terrestrial biosphere over the last billion years. The first plants to emerge onto land 500m years ago formed intimate partnerships with fungi. Lacking roots, these early plants relied on their fungal partners to grow inside them and spread outwards into the primordial mineral soil. In a process known as biological weathering, fungal hyphae would secrete organic acids to dissolve rocks and extract nutrients held within. In return, the plants would transfer nutrients produced through photosynthesis to the fungi. 🍄
It fun to think that fungi were the forefathers of our beautiful planet!!