It appears that the past era was an extraordinary and untamed landscape teeming with plants, creatures, and fungi in all manners of dimensions and forms. Interestingly, a recent investigation hints at the possibility that prehistoric Earth could have harbored a fourth type of life form that no longer inhabits our world today.
The research, a preliminary report published on BioarXiv, delves into prototaxites – an ancient group of organisms that thrived from the Late Silurian (approximately 443 to 420 million years ago) to the Late Devonian (around 420 to 386 million years ago). Remarkably, these beings survived for tens of millions of years, but they’re now extinct. It appears that they were succeeded by large, tree-like organisms with thick trunks in their natural habitat.
In the course of evolution, the extinction of a species is quite common; however, when Prototaxites went extinct, it’s possible they wiped out an entire realm of life in the process.
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Prototaxites, strange giant organisms of the ancient world
Prototaxites were impressive in size, boasting trunk-like structures that could span up to 3 feet across and tower as high as 26 feet. These ancient giants were the earliest known colossal land dwellers and at a glance, appeared similar to trees. Much like trees, they expanded slightly at their base, hinting towards an underground root system. Their fossils show signs of concentric growth rings, indicating that they grew by adding new layers to their outer structure annually.
Discovered in 1843, the distinctive features initially led early fossil researchers to speculate that prototaxites were fossilized remnants of partially decayed conifer trees, earning it the name “first yew.” However, its classification has been debated for almost 200 years. Throughout the years, it’s been suggested that it could be a tree, multicellular algae, and more recently, a large fungus.
Back in 2001, a research article published in the journal “Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology” proposed that Prototaxites were actually fungal organisms. Subsequent investigations examined the mixture of carbon isotopes found in these fossils to determine their energy source. Unlike typical plants that generate energy through photosynthesis, which results in a consistent carbon isotope pattern from the atmosphere, Prototaxites exhibit a broader range of isotopes. This diversity in carbon isotopes suggests that they derived their energy from various soil mixtures, lending credence to the fungi theory.
Nevertheless, Prototaxites possess distinct traits that deviate from typical fungal characteristics, causing a team of researchers to re-evaluate their categorization. If the genetic experts at InGen were designing an exhibit for Prototaxites at Jurassic World, they might require a unique section all to themselves.
Prototaxites might have been a fourth kind of life, distinct from plants, animals, and fungi
Researchers examined both the physical structure and chemical makeup of prototaxites, comparing them to modern-day fungi. However, they discovered that these structures were fundamentally different from any known living or extinct fungi.
In 2018, researchers examining a distant part of tissue from a fossilized prototaxite specimen suggested they had found what appeared to be reproductive structures, which were tubes linked to the internal tissues. This discovery resulted in classifying prototaxites as a “basal relative” within an already recognized fungal family. However, these proposed reproductive pieces didn’t seem to be associated with the inner plant-like material.
In this recent investigation, scientists propose that if Prototaxites are indeed a type of fungus, they should exhibit certain common molecular traits with present-day fungi. However, upon close examination using molecular analysis, it was discovered that the cell walls of Prototaxites contain substances more like lignin rather than the typical chitin or chitosan found in most known fungi.
The researchers could not find evidence supporting the common belief that Prototaxites were fungal. Instead, they explored potential classifications within other higher taxonomic groups, but no existing group matched all the distinctive characteristics of Prototaxites. As a result, they couldn’t categorize Prototaxites into any known lineage, further emphasizing its uniqueness. They concluded that the structure and molecular signature of P. taiti are significantly different from those of fungi and other organisms found in the Rhynie chert. Consequently, they propose that it should be regarded as a member of an unidentified, entirely extinct group of eukaryotes.
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2025-04-02 00:47