It turns out that mushrooms helped the planet recover from the ice age

A team of scientists from Virginia, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guizhou University (GZU) and the University of Cincinnati

discovered fossilized remains of mushrooms -microfossils that originated at the end of the Ice Age, about 635 million years ago. This is the oldest terrestrial fossil ever found. For comparison, these mushrooms appeared before the most ancient dinosaurs, a time difference of more than three times.

The fossil was found in small cavitiesDolomite sedimentary rocks of the lowest layer of the Doushanto Formation in southern China. It is very well studied and scientists did not expect to find any fossils at the bottom of the rock. And yet Tian Gang, one of the authors of the study was able to find several long plant fibers - one of the key characteristics of mushrooms.

This discovery is the key to understanding many turning points throughout the history of the Earth: the Ediacaran period and the Earth transformation of mushrooms.

When the Ediacaran began, the planetrecovered after a catastrophic ice age. At that time, the ocean surface was frozen at a depth of over a kilometer. Such an environment was extremely harsh for almost any living organism, with the exception of a few microscopic life forms that managed to thrive. Scientists have long wondered how life got back to normal and how the biosphere was able to get bigger and more complex than ever before.

After conducting the research, the scientists came to the conclusion thatmicroscopic fungi played important roles in the restoration of the earth's environment during the Ediacaran time. One of them was their powerful digestive system.

In mushrooms, it is quite unique and also playsgreat role in the cycle of vital nutrients. Using enzymes released into the environment, terrestrial fungi can chemically break down rocks and other solid organic matter, which can then be processed and exported to the ocean. Such processes and help the Earth to recover, scientists are sure.

Although previous evidence has indicatedthat terrestrial plants and fungi formed a symbiotic relationship about 400 million years ago, the new discovery changed the timeline and provided new evidence of when the two kingdoms colonized the earth.

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The Doushanto Formation is a geological fossil layer found in Guizhou Province, China. First discovered in 1998

Ediacaran - the last geological periodNeoproterozoic, just before the Cambrian. It is also the last period of the entire Precambrian and Proterozoic aeon. It lasted from about 635 to 541 ± 1 million years ago. The name of the period is derived from the name of the Ediacaran Uplands in South Australia.

Microfossils are fossilized remains of organisms invisible to the naked eye.