Comment on Scientists have confirmed that a 26ft tall, tree-trunk-shaped organism, first discovered in Scotland in 1843, isn't a fungus or plant, but an entirely distinct evolutionary branch of life

cryptTurtle@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• calliope@retrolemmy.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  This has absolutely blown my mind!

  This looks exactly like the kind of whose ancestors would, over millions of years, eventually mutate to become a tree.

  The polished fossil in the Wikipedia article looks a shocking amount like wood!

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  • Naz@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Dude; I think you’re absolutely correct.

    It looks like a proto-tree

    Also: Trees aren’t a uniform genus, but this goes to show, on any planet that has photosynthesis, trees will eventually evolve spontaneously

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  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    there were “trees” before actual trees evolved. in the carbiniferous, mostly from lycophytes,

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• Phoenix3875@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  One of the linked papers thinks it’s actually horizontal rather vertical, as people have guessed originally.

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