Prototaxites

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Either it resembles a pine tree due to being convergent evolution from a fungus or it is a simple skyscraper mushroom of the Ordovician period. Several ecologies have been proposed, including that it was saprotrophic like many modern fungi or that it was a lichenized autotroph on steroids.

With a diameter of up to 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) and a height reaching 8.8 meters (29 ft), Prototaxites fossils are remnants of by far the largest organism discovered from the period of its existence. Viewed from afar, the fossils take the form of tree trunks, spreading slightly near their base in a fashion that suggests a connection to unpreserved root-like structures.

Infilled casts, which may represent the spaces formerly occupied by "roots" of Prototaxites, are common in early Devonian strata. Concentric growth rings, sometimes containing embedded plant material, suggest that the organism grew sporadically by the addition of external layers. It is probable that the preserved "trunks" represent the fruiting body, or "sporophore," of a fungus, which would have been fueled by a mycelium, a net of dispersed filaments ("hyphae").

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Coming soon

Prototaxites would have been the tallest living organism in its day by far. In comparison, the plant Cooksonia only reached 6 cm and towered over the "moss forests." Invertebrates were the only other land-dwelling multicellular life. Prototaxites became extinct as vascular plants rose to prominence.

Intriguingly, Prototaxites was bored long before plants developed a structurally equivalent woody stem, and the borers may have transferred to plants when these evolved. The evolution of land plants and their colonization of terrestrial environments are among the fundamental topics within the field of geobiology.

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Although traces of early land plants have been recorded from successions as old as the Ordovician, a major radiation occurred during the late Silurian and early Devonian, when plants developed more complex forms, increased in abundance, and became well established on most continents.

Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by giant mushrooms 24 feet tall and three feet wide. Mushrooms are actually the reproductive manifestation of a much larger organism, a brief glimpse of the wonders that reside beneath the ground in Utah, USA.

Prototaxites is the first prehistoric fungus and has the tallest non-animal in the world, beaten by related fungi like Termitomyces titanicus and honey mushrooms.

• Movement Pattern: Not a Migrant

• Individual Type: Random

• Population Trend: Stable

• Population: none

• Locomotion: Terrestrial

• Habitat: Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests; Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Salt Flats; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands, Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Mushroom Forests; Mushroom Fields; Deserts and Xeric Shrublands; Badlands; Flooded Grasslands and Savannas; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Cold Bamboo Forests; Tropical Bamboo Forests.

• Medicine: human & veterinary

  • Local: ✘, National: ✘, International: ✘

• Food:

  • Local: ✘, National: ✔, International: ✘

• Earth: 

  • Extinct: Canada; United States

• Berbania/Hirawhassa: 

  • Extant: none

• Reinachos/Ityosel: 

  • Extant: none

• Thatrollwa/Delphia: 

  • Extant: none

Coming soon

Coming soon

Past and Present Incidents - Individuals

• Terran/Gaian

  • n/a

• Berbanian/Hirawhassan

  • n/a

• Reinachos/Ityoselese

  • n/a

• Delphian/Thatrollwan

  • n/a

• Sawintiran

  • n/a 

• Jotunheim

  • n/a

The Recollections of Queen Arianna - Individuals

• Terran/Gaian

  • n/a

• Berbanian/Hirawhassan

  • n/a

• Reinachos/Ityoselese

  • n/a

• Delphian/Thatrollwan

  • n/a

• Sawintiran

  • n/a

• Jotunheim

  • n/a

Biological Relative

• shit

Allies

• shit

Enemies

• shit

See also: none

• Coming soon

Coming soon

• The first ever drawing a fungus in this century.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites

• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2061593

• https://eol.org/pages/6889433

• https://www.indexfungorum.org/names/NamesRecord.asp?RecordID=28581

• https://www.speciesfungorum.org/Names/NamesRecord.asp?RecordID=28581

• https://everydaypower.com/mushroom-quotes/

• https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/cjm-2021-0358

• https://www.upr.org/science/2019-09-12/before-trees-we-had-giant-mushrooms-on-wild-about-utah?_amp=true

• https://www.deviantart.com/ognimdo2002/art/Prototaxites-950804671