Fact #49
August 28, 2026Before Trees, Earth Had Giant Mystery Towers
Around 370-420 million years ago, long before forests fully took over the land, Earth was home to giant trunk-like organisms called Prototaxites. Some fossils show they could grow up to 8 meters (about 26 feet) tall, making them some of the earliest giants on land. The craziest part? Scientists still debate exactly what they were, possibly a fungus or maybe an entirely different kind of life.
Mini Facts
1
Prototaxites lived before the rise of Earth’s first forests, which appeared around 385 million years ago.
2
Some specimens reached about 1 meter in diameter and 8 meters in length, so they would have stood out dramatically in ancient landscapes.
3
For decades, scientists thought Prototaxites was a giant fungus, but newer research suggests it may not fit neatly into the categories of plants, fungi, algae, or lichens.
4
That means one of the tallest organisms in early land ecosystems may have belonged to a lost branch of life unlike anything alive today.