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
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/21/new-form-of-life-discovered-and-its-26ft-tall/
22 Comments
someguy3@lemmy.world · 59 pts · 203d
Aussieiuszko@aussie.zone · 22 pts · 202d
It’s life Jim, but not as we know it
fartographer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 202d
There's Klingons on the starboard bow
TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id · 3 pts · 202d
Starboard bow, Jim!
victorz@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 202d
Pardon my ignorance, I seem to have misunderstood the meaning of "extinct" (?).
someguy3@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 202d
It's a fossil. Really should be part of the headline.
victorz@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 202d
Oooh, okay yeah.
Man, what I wouldn't give to time travel back millions of years and just have a glance through the window of a pod, to see what it would be like to live here for a day back then.
molestme247@lemmy.world · -9 pts · 203d
'They are life' wtf? LoL
wewbull@feddit.uk · 14 pts · 202d
...because it's multiple lifeforms making a single structure. The plural is correct.
whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 202d
Sounds kinda like coral
cryptTurtle@piefed.social · 42 pts · 202d
Wiki has a breakdown of the debate and how it's evolved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites
Neat stuff
calliope@retrolemmy.com · 13 pts · 202d
This has absolutely blown my mind!
This looks exactly like the kind of whose ancestors would, over millions of years, eventually mutate to become a tree.
The polished fossil in the Wikipedia article looks a shocking amount like wood!
Naz@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 202d
Dude; I think you're absolutely correct.
It looks like a proto-tree
Also: Trees aren't a uniform genus, but this goes to show, on any planet that has photosynthesis, trees will eventually evolve spontaneously
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 202d
there were "trees" before actual trees evolved. in the carbiniferous, mostly from lycophytes,
Phoenix3875@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 202d
One of the linked papers thinks it's actually horizontal rather vertical, as people have guessed originally.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 203d
Spooky phallus.
Triumph@fedia.io · 3 pts · 202d
That doesn't narrow it down.
Laukidh@infosec.exchange · 9 pts · 203d
@Innerworld “Sandy Hetherington, the lead co-author and research associate at National Museums Scotland, said: “They are life, but not as we now know it”
https://youtu.be/FCARADb9asE
lvxferre@mander.xyz · 9 pts · 202d
doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 202d
There are plants and algae that don't do photosynthesis (although I think they still have vestigial chloroplast?)
lvxferre@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 202d
Zacryon@feddit.org · 8 pts · 202d
About 7,9248 m (decimal comma)
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 5 pts · 202d
Decimal commas are a lie to cover up that they found Yggdrasil
Maeve@kbin.earth · 4 pts · 202d
https://archive.ph/LEcGT