Since its discovery more than 165 years ago, the giant fossilized structures left behind by creatures known as prototaxite It has proven impossible to classify.
British researchers suggest in one paper: Recently published research There are good reasons why these strange things don’t fit neatly into the Tree of Life. They have no modern equivalent and belong to a branch of their own.
Approximately 400 million years ago, late swamp Silurian A mixture of horsetail, ferns, and plants would have sprouted. Other prototype plants It looks decidedly foreign today.
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An 8-meter (26-foot) tower stretched into it, not easily discernible. These broad, branchless creatures may have been a type of algae or ancient coniferous tree, the researchers speculate, based on what little evidence remains.
Fossils discovered on the coast of Gaspé Bay, Quebec, Canada. was originally considered Geologist John William Dawson thought it was the remains of a rotten tree, which is why he named it “First.” coniferIt dates back to the 1850s.
Although the name stuck, confusion over the fossil’s classification continued until Francis Huber, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History, discovered it. Confirmed in 2001 that prototaxite Indeed, it was most likely a giant fungus.
This conclusion was confirmed several years later in 2017. Subsequent analysis of fossil fragments presumed to be from surrounding areas of smaller prototaxite named species P. Taichi.
A 2017 study claimed to have identified textures similar to today’s fertile structures. Ascomycota Fungi.
But not everyone is convinced, considering the possibility that the separate pieces weren’t even connected.
“You never find structures like that in anatomy books and books written about living fungi,” paleobotanist Alexander Hetherington of the University of Edinburgh told Eric Stockstad. science magazine.
Hetherington co-led three different studies P. Taichi Fragmentary, conclude that there is insufficient evidence to conclude prototaxite It’s totally fungi.
Through microscopic examination of their anatomy and chemical analysis of their tubular structures, the research team systematically eliminated all candidate groups, leaving no living organisms with which they might share any ancestral relationships.
Fungi? Rejected because the anatomical structures are connected in a unique way.
Is it a plant or an algae? Probably not, given the chemical composition.
Is it a mixture of the two, such as a lichen? Not its anatomy.
Some strange animal? The cell wall says there’s no chance.
“Based on this investigation, we are unable to assign prototaxite “It affects all extant lineages and strengthens their uniqueness,” the researchers said. Claim.
“We found that its morphology and molecular fingerprint P. Taichi It is clearly different from preserved fungi and other organisms. [Devonian deposit]And we propose that it is best considered a member of a previously undescribed, completely extinct group of eukaryotes. ”
What happened to this group of long-dead creatures is anyone’s guess. Further research may even lead this mysterious group back into ancient fungi.
A paper on the mysterious Devonian creature prototaxyte has finally been published! Check out this paper (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/…) and the explanation thread below.
Prototaxite reconstruction by Matt Humpage— Laura Cooper (@transitionalform.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 5:55 AM
If there are no similar specimens to relate them to, prototaxite May remain just a fossil anomaly – a reminder of evolutionary potential It’s a continuous experimentthings scattered far away More failures More than we ever realized.
This study science.
An earlier version of this article was published in March 2025, before the study was peer-reviewed.