Long Before Trees Overtook the Land, Earth Was Covered by Giant Mushrooms

I have a deep desire for fried mushrooms now.....

a reply to: ObsidianEclipse

Also fungus tends to dislike ultraviolet light and prefer darker more humid conditions.

The ancient atmosphere could have been thick in its early beginnings. Sunlight penetration on the surface would be limited. Fungi don't need the sun for growth. They just need high humidity and specific nutrients in the ground.

a reply to: eluryh22

Your avatar... is that a darker portrayal of Orco from He-Man cartoon?

It's a Deviant Art artist's rendition of a black mage from the Final Fantasy universe.

a reply to: purplemer

it reminds me of The Search for WondLa. And of Sporeggar in World of Warcraft. & Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. And of that one place outside the town in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

sweet thread

a reply to: Lucid Lunacy
Gotcha.
I apologize... Not too familiar with the FF universe.

a reply to: eluryh22

No need to apologize Not everyone is an rpg nerd like me!

originally posted by: Kangaruex4Ewe
Awesome!! I wonder how big the fairies were then?

S&F for teaching me something new today!!

I wonder how big the turds were back then.

there's a great TED talk about mushrooms in prehistoric times and present. they showed how mushrooms can completely "Eat" radiation from a bank of soil that was purposefully contaminated, and completely rid the dirt of radiation. really amazing stuff they are.

But how is this a solid fact?

a reply to: Foxxer

Its not a solid fact. Its an idea.

originally posted by: Collekt

originally posted by: VoidHawk
I watched a docu a few months back, it was about whether plants interact with each other and their surroundings. they discovered fungi were transporting nutrients from one part of a forest to another part for tree's that couldn't reach the nutrients. If I can remember title of the docu I'll post it.

That sounds really interesting. I'd love to give it a watch if you're able to find it again.

I'm still trying to find it, I'd like to watch it again

stormcell provided THIS LINK, it seems to refer to the same discoveries as what was in the docu.

That's 400 million years of evolution; maybe some types of fungi did actually manage to evolve a collective consciousness of sorts during all that time. A connection with such a phenomenon is universally reported by users of these substances.

Lets check with Bill...



"...that is exactly how it #ing happend."

a reply to: purplemer

Cool post!

It made me find out that I often times forget about gargantuan ancients. Its got my imagination in overdrive here.(sorry for the huge post)

Mushrooms are the situational and briefly lived reproductive phase of the fungi life-cycle. The other phases are much more hidden the less biologically active the phase.

Was there a more constant global rainfall back then? Mycelium tends to wait for lengthily moist conditions beforeit switches gears and focuses on growing shrooms.

In comparison to the longevity of trees, a mushroom lasts as long as a spark.

Anyway, it has become apparent to me that this was a time period of intense and rapid metabolization, where a very particular quality of soil was formed, composed almost entirely out of decayed matter of fungi instead of plants and trees. Trees smell good when they rot, so earthy. But when mushrooms decompose, its like rotting flesh!

If you ever messed around building compost piles and had a pile of just raw kitchen waste without incorporating it with other materials, the flies move in quick and can spawn thousands of maggots in a little pile. Can you imagine the size of the flies and maggots that come with mushrooms




Now with the super-high frequency of mushrooms growing and decaying, they would be producing a very high amount of heat and humidity on the ground, because there would have been goopy bubbling pools of rotten shroom yuck and maggot sludge.

I think the humidity would have been high enough to produce a constant vapor fog thick enough to block out most sunlight for most of the time...or maybe it would have been seasonal.

If it weren't for this cycle to happen, trees would not have been able to come forward around the 380 million years ago mark.

Imagine how much the animals must have been tripping out back then. Sign me up.

originally posted by: purplemer

Damn that makes me hungry...