The earliest example of an organism living on land identified

[Plazma Inferno!]

A fossil dating from 440 million years ago is not only the oldest example of a fossilised fungus, but is also the oldest fossil of any land-dwelling organism yet found. The organism, and others like it, played a key role in laying the groundwork for more complex plants, and later animals, to exist on land by kick-starting the process of rot and soil formation, which is vital to all life on land.
This early pioneer, known as Tortotubus, displays a structure similar to one found in some modern fungi, which likely enabled it to store and transport nutrients through the process of decomposition. Although it cannot be said to be the first organism to have lived on land, it is the oldest fossil of a terrestrial organism yet found. The results are published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/a-load-of-old-rot-fossil-of-oldest-known-land-dweller-identified

Paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/boj.12389/abstract

 

[Edont Knoff]

A fungus. I wonder what's been it's energy source. Today most funghi dwell on organic matierials, but that was probaly scarse on land these days. So minerals? Since I saw molds grow on silicone, I'm under the impression that they can "eat" almost anything and a little dirt is enough for them to survive.

 

[sculptor]

Without the fungi, we wouldn't have the trees.

Plants gained their ancestral toehold on dry land with considerable help from their fungal friends.

Fungi are a cornerstone of woodland ecosystems.

Around 90% of land plants are in mutually-beneficial relationships with fungi.
In mycorrhizal associations, plants provide fungi with food in the form of carbohydrates. In exchange, the fungi help the plants suck up water, and provide nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, via their mycelia. Since the 1960s, it has been clear that mycorrhizae help individual plants to grow.

Fungal networks also boost their host plants' immune systems. That's because, when a fungus colonises the roots of a plant, it triggers the production of defense-related chemicals. These make later immune system responses quicker and more efficient, a phenomenon called "priming". Simply plugging in to mycelial networks makes plants more resistant to disease.

 

[timojin]

I had the impression that there was some form of primitive life on some Australian rock and they are supposed to be over 1.7 billion years old

 

[origin]

I had the impression that there was some form of primitive life on some Australian rock and they are supposed to be over 1.7 billion years old

Not 1.7 billion years - 3.5 billion years ago and it was primitive bacteria, but they did not live on land. This thread is about the oldest land dwelling life.

 

[timojin]

Not 1.7 billion years - 3.5 billion years ago and it was primitive bacteria, but they did not live on land. This thread is about the oldest land dwelling life.

With all pardon . Let say there was a lake like some lake as we hear in california , then the lake dries up . There was some organism living in water in the lake as the water disappears and the organism now is on land . An I go and pick up the organism . What should identify the organism is it a land organism or aqueous ?

 

[origin]

With all pardon . Let say there was a lake like some lake as we hear in california , then the lake dries up . There was some organism living in water in the lake as the water disappears and the organism now is on land . An I go and pick up the organism . What should identify the organism is it a land organism or aqueous ?

If it is dead you can be pretty sure it was aquatic.
If an organism can only live in water it is aquatic. If it primarily lives on land it is a land animal. If it lives in the water and on land it is semi-aquatic.

This thread is about the first life that could survive out of the water.

Don't make this more difficult than it is!

 

[Walter L. Wagner]

If Fraggle were posting, he'd be mentioning that without fungus, the trees would have piled up in layers, forming coal seams. Once the fungus developed the trick to digest cellulose, that was the beginning of the end for coal formation.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

A fungus. I wonder what's been it's energy source. Today most funghi dwell on organic matierials, but that was probaly scarse on land these days. So minerals? Since I saw molds grow on silicone, I'm under the impression that they can "eat" almost anything and a little dirt is enough for them to survive.

There was an article on this in today's Washington Post. What I gathered from it is that the tide deposited various organisms onto the beach, including these fungi (or their ancestors, anyway), which derived nutrition from the ones that died--or surely in some cases through parasitism.

As the range of this tenuous collection of organisms slowly extended further inland, all of them (including the fungi) would have slowly evolved to survive in an increasingly drier environment. A few million years later, we've got a balanced ecosystem that is adapted to the interior regions of the continents.

When animals finally evolved to locomote on land and breathe air, the environment they needed for life support, including bacteria, plants and fungi (perhaps also algae), was already in place.