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• Colonization of land on the planet Earth is a critical part of the history of life.

• During this time, fungi played a variety of roles.

• Fungi contributed to continental weathering, biogeochemical cycles, and interaction with land organisms.

• Determining the time of when fungi colonized the land is crucial to understand the development of terrestrial ecosystem.

• Fungi may have separated around 1200 million years ago.

• However, it is unclear when fungi first moved to land.

• Pre-Devonian fossil record of fungi is very limited.

• There were a number of fungi fossils discovered but came from marine and estuarine environments, and did not show evidence that they came from terrestrial environment.

• Researchers discovered pyritized micro-fossils that looks like fungi in the basal Doushantuo Formation in China.

• Pyrites is a shiny yellow mineral consisting of iron disulphide and typically occurring as intersecting cubic crystals.[1]

• The Doushantuo Formation dates back around 635 million years ago.

• These possible fungi colonized and were preserved in rocks formed after the period when the surface of the Earth was almost entirely frozen.

• Researchers interpreted the organisms as eukaryotes and possible fungi.

• The data provides direct fossil evidence and contributing a more specific timeline of when fungi colonized the land.

Sources:

Gan, T., Luo, T., Pang, K. et al. Cryptic terrestrial fungus-like fossils of the early Ediacaran Period. Nat Commun 12, 641 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20975-1

[1] https://www.lexico.com/definition/pyrites

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