The discovery of billion-year-old fungi could fundamentally alter our understanding of how life began on land hundreds of millions of years ago. Researchers said the fungi may have coexisted with rudimentary animals.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Dodd
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Researchers in Belgium unveiled their discovery of the world's oldest-known fungi on Wednesday. In findings published in the journal Nature, they detailed how the nearly billion-year-old microfossils of a globular spore with a T-shaped filament could reshape our understanding of how life evolved on land.
Scientists with the University of Liege said the fossilized fungus that they found in Canada and named Ourasphaira giraldae was a precursor to the vast group that today includes mushrooms, yeasts, and molds, and lived between 900 million and 1 billion years ago.
For decades, it was assumed that a 410-million-year-old fossil from Scotland was among the oldest fungi on the planet.
Corentin Loron, one of the researchers on the team, said that the find was so significant because in the "tree of life," fungi are part of a group called Eukaryotes, which includes both plants and animals.
"This means that if fungi are already present around 900-1,000 million years ago, so should animals have been," Loron told the French news agency AFP.
"This is reshaping our vision of the world because those groups are still present today. Therefore, this distant past, although very different from today, may have been much more 'modern' than we thought."
Fungi are one of the most numerous organisms on earth, and their biomass is six times heavier than the mass of all animals combined. The close evolutionary relationship between fungi and animals has led the Liege scientists to believe that some early forms of microscopic animal life may have existed at the same time as Ourasphaira giraldae. Currently, the oldest known fossil of early animals are 635 million years old.
Biodiversity: The 'lost kingdom' of amazing fungi
Only a fraction of the world's species of fungi have an official name. Two scientists have been identifying organisms in the tropical forests of Ecuador which have never before been logged.
Image: Danny Newman
Describing the undescribed
Scientists and wildlife experts warn that the earth is facing an unprecedented extinction crisis, where thousands of species will disappear. Yet at the same time much of the world's biodiversity remains unknown to science.
Image: Danny Newman
A myriad of species awaiting discovery
Fungi played an important role in greening the earth billions of years ago. Roo Vandegrift, a fungal ecologist with the University of Oregon, describes them as "the lost kingdom," given that so much is still to be learned. There are an estimated 3.2 million different species of fungi in the world; only 240,000 have been officially described.
Image: Danny Newman
Fungal wonderland
Vandegrift traveled to Reserva Los Cedros in Ecuador in 2014 to document fungal biodiversity. He worked with mycologist Danny Newman, who took these fantastic photographs. Los Cedros was one of the last unlogged watersheds on the slopes of the Ecuadorean Andes. The majority of fungi are found in the tropics, and Vandegrift says working in the area you are "bound to" find new species.
Image: Danny Newman
Oddball fungus
This is Xylobotryum portentosum, which Newman describes as an "oddball fungus." It is distantly related to the Xylaria genus, but experts are unsure into which particular fungal family it should be placed. The scientists found another Xylobotryum on their trip which they believe is new to science.
Months in the lab
The two scientists are still to finish their work on the specimens they collected. They say a day out in the field can mean months of work in the lab. Newman says there is a lack of investment in researching new biodiversity, so the pair are crowdfunding their efforts to sequence the DNA of the fungi they found.
No money for fungi
Given there is so much undocumented biodiversity in the world of fungi, there is a real chance that many species go extinct before they are even named — like this funky fungi that has consumed an insect. Newman says it would be logical to have a lot of research trips like theirs taking place regularly. "They are not," he says, "and there is no funding for them."
Image: Danny Newman
Appetite for insects
Some of the species found are parasitic. This fungus is a member of the Hypocreales family, and begins by parasitizing and consuming insects and white flies. They then grow through the mouth of the dead insect host and begin feeding on the bamboo on which the insect once fed. This is a cross-section that shows a gelatinous interior that resembles a cross between a spiral galaxy and grape jello!
Image: Danny Newman
Mining threat
Roo Vandegrift says things need to be given a name so they can be protected. The Ecuadorian government has, since 2014, opened Los Cedros to mining projects. This means the habitat could be destroyed. Newman and Vandegrift are hoping that identifying and describing species that are rare and endemic to the area will help raise awareness of the danger.
