The new discovery breaks the record of the 450 million-year-old fossilized mushroom previously excavated in Wisconsin, north of the country, according to the Guardian.

In the article in the journal Nature , scientists determined that this ancient fungus is Ourasphaira giraldae . The cells of the fungus are less than 1/10 mm long and connected together with thin, branched silk fibers.

When placing fossils under a microscope, the team can completely find out many of the major features of fungi including spherical cells, branching fibers that connect cells, and become successful. two-layer cell.

Preserved in solid sludge and not absorbed by oxygen to decompose, fossil specimens still have traces of chitin, an organic compound that forms a fungal cell wall. Corentin Loron, author of the study at the University of Liège, Belgium, said "mushroom samples are so well preserved that we still can find organic compounds."

Mushrooms play an important role in ecosystems, decompose organic matter and return nutrients to the soil environment to help plants grow. The existence of fungi from 1 billion years ago showed that these organisms laid the foundation for the first plants on Earth 470 million years ago.

In addition, the record age of new fungi also reveals the development history of many other organisms. Before becoming a separate branch, mushrooms and animals belong to an evolutionary branch. If mushrooms have evolved a billion years ago, primitive animals can also.

"If this is really a mushroom, then there might be animals around. We don’t talk about big species like dinosaurs that might be something as simple as a sponge," Loron said.