Prototaxites: mysterious giants could have been a completely unique form of life

[Brian G Turner]

Interesting.

Scientists baffled at mysterious ancient creature that doesn't fit on the tree of life as we know it

An ancient and enormous organism called Prototaxites, initially found to be a type of fungus, may actually be an unknown branch of life, researchers say.

www.livescience.com

 

[Foxbat]

A question that hopefully somebody with more knowledge on the subject (I have zero knowledge on prototaxists) can answer.
It says in the article that it likely fed on the decaying remains of other organisms (much like many types fungus do). Logic dictates that this matter would have been on the ground so why did it have to be so tall?

It seems to me that there are two possible reasons. One of those being reproduction. Did it haves spores that need the height to spread (and would this make it as fungus)? I don't think any reproductive mechanisms are mentioned in the article.

Or was it showing signs of phototropism? And if so, could it be a proto-tree?

 

[Brian G Turner]

It says in the article that it likely fed on the decaying remains of other organisms

I think they're just guessing, and are still thinking in terms of fungi. But fungi don't need to grow 30 feet tall to spread spores, especially when the next biggest things on land at the time were only inches tall.

I'm curious what it could be feeding on, because there's not much living on the land as it was, let alone dying to provide nutrients. Maybe that's a clue.