@JackTheCat and in our back yard! When I was doing my my PhD - forty years ago - my supervisor took me to Rhynie and I picked up a piece of Rhynie chert with a piece of Rhynia - an ancient vascular plant. (I lost it some while ago.)

News that Prototaxites is an entirely different form of life is - well, mind blowing! And kind of incomprehensible.

(I also used to have a small fossil of stigmarian roots - giant horsetails - which I picked up on a mountain in Greenland. But I've lost that too!)

@JackTheCat Indeed!!!

Oh wow! Amazing.

"A fossil of Prototaxites... is set to go on display at the National Museum of Scotland.

This enigmatic organism, which grew to more than eight metres tall, belonged to an "entirely extinct evolutionary branch of life", scientists believe. Initially thought to be a fungus, experts now suggest Prototaxites, which vanished approximately 360 million years ago, was neither plant nor fungus."

#Scotland #evolution #biology
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/prototaxites-scotland-fossil-fungus-life-b2905336.html

"The US’s bet on AI is now so gigantic that every Maga voter’s pension is bound to the bubble’s precarious survival. AI investment now rivals consumer spending as the primary creator of American economic growth. It accounted for virtually all (92%) GDP growth in the first half of this year. Without it, US GDP grew only 0.1%. Despite Donald Trump’s posturing, he is on shaky economic ground."

"This is Europe’s secret weapon against Trump: it could burst his AI bubble."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/17/europe-donald-trump-ai-bubble-us-economy-eu?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other