Prototaxites was a giant cylindrical mushroom that lived from 420 to 370 million years ago. It grew up to 8m tall and was the only organism on earth over a couple of feet in height during its time. Its lack of obvious vascular tissue ruled it out as a plant, and it obtained its nutrients by extending its feeding tubes over the surrounding soil. Some consider it to be among the strangest organisms that ever lived.
Prototaxites (pro-tow-TAX-i-tees) is a giant cylindrical mushroom that dominated landscapes of the Late Silurian and first half of the Devonian period, living from 420 to 370 million years ago. Prototaxistes grew up to 8 m (26 ft) tall, with a diameter of up to 1 m (3.2 ft). The first research on Prototaxites was published in 1859 by Canadian scientist John William Dawson, using samples found along the shores of Gaspé Bay in Quebec, Canada as a basis. His initial interpretation was that the organism was an early conifer rotted by a fungus, starting a century-and-a-half debate about the nature of the organism that was only resolved in 2007.
In the early period of his rule, Prototaxites would have been the only organism on earth over a couple of feet in height, as vascular plants were just in their infancy and had not yet developed true wood or leaves. It would have been scary to see the late Silurian landscape, with nothing but a series of tall fungal monoliths towering over low-lying plants that are home to the first land animals: small arthropods, worms and millipedes. This world was very different from today’s.
The fossil is a tall cylinder composed of braided tubes just 50 microns (millionths of a meter or thousandths of a millimetre) in diameter. The lack of obvious vascular tissue ruled it out as a plant, but there was much debate as to what exactly it was. Any proposition sounded insane: How could a mushroom, lichen, or seaweed be 26 feet tall? We don’t know yet, but a complete absence of large herbivores and a lack of competition from plants must have helped. Some have proposed that it was to spread its spores more easily, but mushrooms only a couple of inches tall, like mushrooms, seem to have no problem spreading their spores.
Lacking the ability to photosynthesize, prototaxites must have obtained its nutrients by extending its feeding tubes (hyphae) over the surrounding soil. He is thought to have consumed cryptobiotic soil (also called biocrust), soil that contains bacteria, lichens, mosses and other fungi. Today, cryptobiotic soil is found only in deserts, but during the Silurian and Devonian it would have been much more common, providing plenty of food for this massive fungus.
Some paleontologists consider prototaxis to be among the strangest organisms that ever lived. It definitely shows the apex of mushroom evolution before plants and animals took over the earth.
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