Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

i'm absolute floored by the idea of giant mushroom forests.

when i told my friend about this, their first thought was "mario?"

Researchers studied fossilized remains of Prototaxites taiti, a species of this organism. They found that its anatomy was fundamentally distinct from all known fungi. They suggest it may belong to a completely different kingdom of life, separate from fungi, plants, animals and protists. More research is needed to determine if they were fungi or a completely different type of life.