Discovering fossil mushrooms about a billion years old

New discoveries of mushroom fossils in Canada can reshape our understanding of how life evolves.

Scientists have unearthed fossil mushrooms dating back to a billion years, in a discovery that reshapes our understanding of how life on Earth evolved and developed, the research group. rescued from Liege University, Belgium on May 22 said. For decades, the earliest known fungus is thought to have only appeared about half a billion years ago.

Fossil mushroom a billion years old look under a microscope.(Photo: Discover Magazine).

Recent fossil samples were excavated in Canada and analyzed by the most advanced technology. The team examined micro-fossils (microfossil) to determine the chemical composition of fungal cells. Based on the presence of chitin, a fiber that forms on fungal cell walls, and the determination of the age of stones based on the proportion of radioactive elements, the team concludes the fossil micro-ages are 900 million years old. to a billion years.

Corentin Loron, a member of the research team, said the new discovery is significant because in "the tree of life" , fungi are part of the eukaryote group, which includes plants, animals and fungi. "This means that if mushrooms were present around 900-1,000 million years ago, animals would be the same," Loron said.

Mushrooms are still one of the richest living organisms on the planet and the third largest contributor to global biomass after plants and bacteria. It weighs six times the mass of all animals and humans combined. The study was published in the journal Nature .

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