This Mysterious 407-Million-Year-Old Fossil May Represent a Previously Unknown Branch of Life
Earth’s first large land organisms—tree trunk-like beings that stood up to 26 feet tall—weren’t early fungi but, rather, something else entirely, a study suggests
This Smithsonian article discusses a 407-million-year-old fossil,Prototaxites, which was previously thought to be an early type of fungus. A recent study inScience Advances argues thatPrototaxitesis chemically and structurally distinct from fungi, suggesting it may represent a previously unknown branch of life.
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