Numerous microfossils of Fungi have been found in Canada, which are up to one billion years old. This find pushes the age of fungi back by 450 million years.

Fungi play an important role in ecosystems, as they break down organic material. This has led the discoverers of these old fungi to speculate that also other simple life must have existed at that time, although the oldest fossils of simple animals date back to “only” 635 million years ago.

The newly discovered fungus, likely an ancestor of modern fungi, contained chitin, a fibrous component that forms fungi cell walls, making this the oldest record of chitin as well.

Read the full story: University of Liège
Scientific publication: Nature