Earth has seen many different and strange forms of life over hundreds of millions of years. Scientists examine fossils to understand the evolution of life in the past and in this way understand the Earth that we now live in. However, recently in the UK, an amazing and unbelievable scientific discovery was made of a totally earth-shattering form of life in the past.
Scientists have discovered a fossil in Scotland, which is not classified as plant, animal, or fungus. Named as Prototaxites, this ancient form of life is 410 million years old with a height of 26 feet, making it the tallest life on land for its time.
They predict that the time that has elapsed since its extinction was 360 million years ago and therefore it had become extinct 370 million years ago. This was discovered through the sedimentation layer referred to as Rhynie chert, through which much information about life on land is derived.
Previous understandings of this plant-like creature indicated to scientists that it was a gargantuan fungus, yet this is not so; this creature took a different evolutionary path. In fact, this creature is akin to an entirely extinct group.
This finding was described by a researcher from National Museums Scotland as a major breakthrough in a debate spanning more than 165 years. Another researcher based at the University of Edinburgh claimed that they had shown Prototaxites did not belong to any known group of complex life forms but represented an experiment in how life on Earth formed complex structures on the land.
Prototaxites lived between 420 and 370 million years ago in a period when life on Earth began to be dominated by plants, animal life, and fungi. Although it may be considered to be the tallest life form ever to have walked the Earth, it has now been surpassed by trees. Scientific study of the new fossils will be housed in the National Museums Collections Centre in Edinburgh.