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

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• cryptTurtle@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Wiki has a breakdown of the debate and how it’s evolved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites

  Neat stuff

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• someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  But new research from the University of Edinburgh and National Museums Scotland has shown the fossil is neither fungus nor plant, but a new lifeform that became extinct around 370 million years ago.

  Sandy Hetherington, the lead co-author and research associate at National Museums Scotland, said: “They are life, but not as we now know it, displaying anatomical and chemical characteristics distinct from fungal or plant life, and therefore belonging to an entirely extinct evolutionary branch of life.”

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  • molestme247@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    ‘They are life’ wtf? LoL

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    • wewbull@feddit.uk ⁨57⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      …because it’s multiple lifeforms making a single structure. The plural is correct.

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• ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Spooky phallus.

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