Fungi Took the Lead: New Study Pushes Fungal Diversification Tens of Millions of Years Before Land Plants
By integrating fossil calibration with rare horizontal gene transfers, a team led by OIST reconstructed a fungal timetree that places the origin of crown fungi between 1,401 and 896 million years ago—well ahead of land plants. This suggests fungi may have engineered early soils and ecosystems before plants arrived.
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