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
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42158359
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/21/new-form-of-life-discovered-and-its-26ft-tall/Open linkView original on lemmy.world290
Comments28
This is an article in the shitrag Torygraph and it doesn't even include a link to the original paper!
There's a preprint of the paper here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.14.643340v1.full.pdf
My Hero! Thanks for posting!
Hmm, preprint, submitted 2025 March 17, appears to be taking a while to get past the review process to full publication. It's fascinating how much we've learned to tell about biological processes by looking at the fossilization end products.
These have been studied for quite a while.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites
Thank you for making the one comment with any science value, on a science post. I learned about something new.
*fossil of an organism
"new lifeform that became extinct around 370 million years ago"
Weirdest comments for a science community...
Fuck clickbaity headlines. And a fossil isn't a organism anymore.
Also, it's this one.
Well, trash. I already knew about these, but as fossils. This headline made me think they found a branch of them just growing in Scotland. But no, it is just the thing we already knew about. Not sure how they got any information that confirms they weren't plants or fungi from fossils, but I guess that is the only newsworthy thing here. (Tubes, mostly looking at the branching of tubes and how they differ from any fruiting fungus is what I gather after reading the actual paper. I do think it is interesting that they also focused on how they are different from crustaceans. It would have been pretty interesting if those were crab trees.)
Link without pay wall https://archive.ph/LEcGT
It looks like a giant...
Dick! Dick, take a look out of starboard…
It’s long and hard to scan. We need to get someone in there… Peter
It looks like a giant, check this out Johnson!
I was about to say dildo, but that checks out as well
They were trying to start an Austin Powers thing, but everyone here failed them.
They discovered Ents.
Soooo.... let's clone it and see what happens!
Fossils don't typically contain DNA
Easy there, Hammond!
I saw a really good rundown of this the other day on YouTube: "Presented by Joe Botting, independent palaeontologist and Honorary Research Fellow at the National Museum Wales":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqT8Q8plKJ8
Here's a good video about this that I watched the other day:
https://youtu.be/LqT8Q8plKJ8
i hear gene belcher, “land boner!”
Some real Flesh Gordon vibes
I think they'll find it was my penis. And yes, it is alive
I came here to ensure this comment was added. You did your part!
I couldn't let such a good opportunity go unexploited
A what now?
Edit: oh, extinct: (
Maybe its a protists like thing similar to coral? Idk