Watch When Giant Fungi Ruled in New Channel | Channify

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateEONS 420 million years ago, a giant feasted on the dead, growing slowly into the largest living thing on land. It belonged to an unlikely group of pioneers that ultimately made life on land possible -- the fungi. Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios Thanks to Franz Anthony of 252mya.com and Jon Hughes of jfhdigital.com for their tremendous reconstructions of Prototaxites. Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow Twitter - https://twitter.com/eonsshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/ References: http://www.davidmoore.org.uk/21st_Century_Guidebook_to_Fungi_PLATINUM/REPRINT_collection/Hueber_Prototaxites2001.pdf https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070425-fungus-fossil_2.html http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/boj.12389/abstract http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/070423.fungus.shtml https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/devonian/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2880155/ https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-662-46011-5_10.pdf http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/devonian/devonian.php https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/the-world-s-largest-mining-operation-is-run-by-fungi/ http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/7/4/574 https://books.google.com/books?id=gSAufF5IUKoC&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=prototaxites+1843&source=bl&ots=G_xulZhwpL&sig=NfRL10g81UGZJ-SQxEV8iNCb88E&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjpsYrenq3XAhWL6IMKHd5zBosQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=prototaxites%201843&f=false https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21684921 https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/boj.12389 https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/oldest-plant-fossil-found http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2818.1873.tb04672.x/abstract http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fungi/lichens/lichenfr.html http://science.sciencemag.org/content/293/5532/1129 http://www.newsweek.com/fossilized-fungi-worlds-oldest-land-fossil-432797 http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151205-one-amazing-substance-allowed-life-to-thrive-on-land http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1469-8137.2002.00397.x/abstract http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3852/13-390?journalCode=umyc20 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/were-weirdo-ediacarans-really-lichens-fungi-and-slime-molds/ https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01884 http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9079000/9079963.stm https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/24/1/55/206443/new-evidence-for-land-plants-from-the-lower-middle?redirectedFrom=fulltext http://science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2001-news/Hedges8-2001.htm https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/180/4/452/2416561 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/boj.12389/abstract https://qz.com/630770/a-scientist-identified-the-oldest-land-fossil-ever-and-realized-it-was-eating-something-even-older/ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0034666713000948 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3427499.stm ~419mya http://horseshoecrab.org/research/sites/default/files/P.Shelden%201990.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC333434/ https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/30/5/391/192367/first-steps-on-land-arthropod-trackways-in?redirectedFrom=fulltext https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/non-marine-arthropod-traces-from-the-subaerial-ordovician-borrowdale-volcanic-group-english-lake-district/A203763DC4AEA05D731966614AB2DE30 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20420932 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263080406_Rotted_wood-alga-fungus_The_history_and_life_of_Prototaxites_Dawson_1859 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleontological-society-special-publications/article/solution-to-the-enigma-of-prototaxites/F153A7007C25269D6C58734E8FF96F18 https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2396361.pdf https://www.academia.edu/891357/Early_terrestrial_animals_evolution_and_uncertainty https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4094847.pdf