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<\/p>\nA fossil of Prototaxites, a colossal lifeform that once towered over ancient landscapes, is set to go on display at the National Museum of Scotland.<\/p>\n
This enigmatic organism, which grew to more than eight metres tall, belonged to an “entirely extinct evolutionary branch of life”, scientists believe. Initially thought to be a fungus, experts now suggest Prototaxites, which vanished approximately 360 million years ago, was neither plant nor fungus.<\/p>\n
The 410-million-year-old fossil was discovered in the Rhynie chert, a sedimentary deposit near Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, and has been added to National Museums Scotland\u2019s collections in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
A new paper in Science Advances reinforces the theory that Prototaxites was a unique life form no longer found on Earth.<\/p>\n
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The prototaxites fossil was found in Aberdeenshire (Neil Hanna\/PA)<\/p>\n
Dr Sandy Hetherington, co-lead author and research associate at National Museums Scotland<\/a>, and senior lecturer in biological sciences at the University of Edinburgh<\/a>, said: \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to make a major step forward in the debate over prototaxites, which has been going on for around 165 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are life, but not as we now know it, displaying anatomical and chemical characteristics distinct from fungal or plant life, and therefore belonging to an entirely extinct evolutionary branch of life.<\/p>\n Researchers (R to L) Sandy Hetherington, Corentin Loron and Laura Cooper at the National Museums Collection Centre with sample fossils of the species Prototaxites. (Neil Hanna\/PA)<\/p>\n \u201cEven from a site as loaded with palaeontological significance as Rhynie, these are remarkable specimens and it\u2019s great to add them to the national collection in the wake of this exciting research.\u201d<\/p>\n Co-lead and first author, Dr Corentin Loron, from the UK centre for Astrobiology at the university, said: \u201cThe Rhynie chert is incredible. It is one of the world\u2019s oldest, fossilised, terrestrial ecosystems and because of the quality of preservation and the diversity of its organisms, we can pioneer novel approaches such as machine learning on fossil molecular data.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot of other material from the Rhynie chert already in museum collections for comparative studies, which can add important context to scientific results.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Researchers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/97b3591f310b1af05916c221a71e8ea8.jpeg\"\/)
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