There is much written about the prehistoric ancestors of many organisms including mammals, reptiles, birds and more. But what of fungi? Not much was known to have survived which is perhaps odd given the plant like structures we see today, but on closer examination tiny microscopic threads (hyphae) have been found as fossils and remains captured in amber – though there is often debate over whether this type of structure is a true fungus or something very similar such as a filamentous algae. The earliest signs of fungi are 1430 million years old.
But what of the larger structures? Where were the mushrooms in the fossil record? We know most fungi do not fossilize well, but in the late 20th century scientists started to look more closely at a large plant-like organism (Prototaxites)that had originally been thought to be a conifer-like tree or algae (specimen collected in 1843). New evidence presented by Hueber in 2007 concluded that based on the preserved morphology Prototaxites was a fungus – a huge tree-like fungus which predates the development of the trees we see today.
We can thus envisage a time hundreds of millions of years ago when fungi dominated land and sea both in quantity and in physical size. Fungi were well placed to take advantage of the arrival of newer life forms such as trees and even animals.
We will present a series of articles and links in this new section that illustrate what we know about this fascinating time in earth’s history.
There is much written about the prehistoric ancestors of many organisms including mammals, reptiles, birds and more. But what of fungi? Not much was known to have survived which is perhaps odd given the plant like structures we see today, but on closer examination tiny microscopic threads (hyphae) have been found as fossils and remains captured in amber – though there is often debate over whether this type of structure is a true fungus or something very similar such as a filamentous algae. The earliest signs of fungi are 1430 million years old.
There is some evidence to support the development of the ability by fungi to digest wood ended the development of coal.
