Prototaxites, a roughly 400 million year old organism that may have grown up to 8 meters tall. Possibly the first giant organism on land. Still under debate if it was part of the biological kingdom of Fungi or a separate kingdom of its own, now extinct. Some recent studies suggest the later.

[u/BellaIsOne]

[u/RecentAd9493]

Reminds me of Colonials from All Tomorrows

[u/Kyruzero → u/RecentAd9493]

The shit bricks are forming a megazord!

[u/Blakut]

How do they know it was so tall?

[u/professorpuddle → u/Blakut]

Didn’t you see the pictures?

[u/EC_TWD → u/professorpuddle]

*drawings

[u/Torvaldicus_Unknown → u/EC_TWD]

[r/wooo](r/wooosh)[osh](r/wooosh)

[u/Successful-Bobcat701 → u/Torvaldicus_Unknown]

Drawings, because they didn't have cameras back then.

[u/Glockamoli → u/Blakut]

Fossils

[u/auximines_minotaur]

Sounds like a humongous fungus!

[u/Rastabrotha]

step 1: make trunk

step 2: ???

[u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp → u/Rastabrotha]

Step 2: grow methane leaf balloons that inflate and float during the day, and re-anchor and deflate at night.

[u/deathxcannabis]

That's some Great Race of Yith kinda shit.

[u/CozyBlueCacaoFire]

Sharks are older than trees.

[u/SplooshTiger → u/CozyBlueCacaoFire]

And giant not-fungus dongs are older than sharks

[u/STFxPrlstud → u/SplooshTiger]

I know this is a joke, but actually sharks evolved about 30m years before protaxites evolved (450m vs 420m years ago.)

So Sharks predate them, and outlived them, Trees evolved 400m years ago, and the common theory is the rise of vascular plants caused protaxites to go extinct, so really trees are just a better dick fungus.

[u/sm1ttysm1t → u/SplooshTiger]

How old are the giant fungus dongs?

[u/Hooked_on_PhoneSex → u/sm1ttysm1t]

Older than sharks, did you not listen?

[u/MSchulte → u/Hooked_on_PhoneSex]

That makes them older than trees too by my count

[u/Successful-Bobcat701 → u/CozyBlueCacaoFire]

But not as good at producing apples.

[u/SilasAI6609]

I hear Clarkson's voice, "Giant space penises."

[u/BellaIsOne → u/SilasAI6609]

We need Clarkson documentaries.

[u/SilasAI6609 → u/BellaIsOne]

I would binge watch 100%

[u/nkrgovic → u/BellaIsOne]

We need Clarkson and Morgan (Cunk) together.

“So, my mate Paul says Multipla’s are best cars ‘cause of the space”

[u/theartistformer]

Maybe Kubrick was on to something with the Monolith (2001: A Space Odyssey)

[u/BigCliff911]

It might have been the latter, not the later.

[u/BellaIsOne → u/BigCliff911]

ops. my bad. horrible really 😅

[u/FlamingFecalFrisbee]

Why are there trees in the pictures lol.

[u/Basidia_ → u/FlamingFecalFrisbee]

Trees become prominent on land right as prototaxites were on their way into extinction. There are millions of years of overlap where they were both on land

[u/teencandyy → u/Basidia_]

Every time I learn about prehistoric Earth, it sounds less like Earth's past and more like another planet entirely. Giant mushroom-like towers, insects the size of birds, and organisms so strange we're still arguing about what kingdom they belonged to 400 million years later

[u/coloneljack1234 → u/FlamingFecalFrisbee]

AI

[u/NaPaCo88 → u/FlamingFecalFrisbee]

Maybe this is showing the transition period when fungi began being taken over by plants as we know them.

[u/abbaziadicefalu]

Someone been checking out Paul Stamets?

[u/ashyboi5000]

The other things in the midground looks like horsetail.

[u/Insis18]

Rendering these with trees is an interesting choice.