He called the organism Prototaxites, meaning “first conifer.” The name stuck, even though the fossil didn’t quite match any ...

Chemical analysis suggests the 400-million-year-old fossil Prototaxites was neither plant, animal or fungus – hinting at a ...

The Paleozoic era's Silurian period saw animals and plants finally emerge on land. But first there was a period of biological regrouping following the disastrous climax to the Ordovician.

But trees didn’t yet exist during the Silurian period, so what exactly was this thing taking over the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana? That argument was never truly settled. Most scientists ...