Ancient giant fossil challenges plant and fungi categories
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Researchers from the University of Liège in Belgium, the Royal Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium, and the New Albany Museum studied ancient plant fossils found in South Africa.
Around 400 million years ago, before trees existed, organisms called Prototaxites grew to over 7.5 meters tall in a landscape with low-lying vegetation. Scientists first discovered these fossils in 1843, and named them “primitive if” in 1859, but later determined they were not trees.
For decades, experts debated whether Prototaxites was a giant fungus or a completely different life form. A new study in Science Advances strengthens the idea that Prototaxites belonged to a lost lineage, separate from known kingdoms of life. The researchers found that while Prototaxites had tube-like structures similar to fungal filaments, these tubes branched randomly, unlike the ordered structures in fungi.
Importantly, the fossils lacked chitin, a key component of fungal cell walls, even though other fossilized fungi from the same location contained it. While scientists are unsure how Prototaxites obtained energy in a world with limited vegetation, they agree it represents a unique form of early multicellular life and may have played a similar ecological role to modern fungi by decomposing organic matter.
A newly discovered fossil forest in southwestern England, dating back 390 million years, is now the oldest known fossil forest, predating the Gilboa Forest in the United States.
