What Was The First Fungus?

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I worked as an ecosystem restoration ecologist for over 25 years and was often frustrated at poor results from tree planting on modified soils. Then it hit me about 10 years ago that the trees we WANT to be present are highly dependent on ectomycorrhizal fungi. After that, we focused on "feeding the soil" with copious amount of wood chips, vertical mulching, and wood staking. The other strategy is to include the tougher woody plants that seem to perform well on the conpacted soils.

As an evolutionary biologist myself, I must say that your documentaries on Evolution are the best I've ever seen. I always tell my students to take a look. Great work! Keep it up! You certainly deserve millions more viewers!

This is the exact kind of documentary that I've missed on National Geographic and Discovery. Excellent story-telling, and beautiful vocabulary that almost tries to transport you back in time as if you're watching the whole thing play out in real time. Keep it up!

I cannot believe this series is free. Thank you SO much for all the hard work you do

So im in my last year of highschool, and ive studied fungi in my own free time for almost 2 full years. I absolutely adore this them. Now, heres one of my favorite Fun Facts regarding the topic of fungi. A species named Entomophthora muscae, which is latin for INSECT DESTROYER regarding flies. Its a entomopathogenic mould that infects primarily house flies or fruit flies. It infects female flies circulatory and nervous system. It eats its fair share of the poor fly before it induces summiting, death and begins to sporulate. The thing is...the females infected corpse also emits chemicals called sesquiterpenes...all u need to know about these chemicals is that they sexually excite and attract male flies...the males try mating with the corpse and become infected themselves. In a scientific study, it was basically found that males preferred mating with infected DEAD females instead of uninfected live ones... TL;DR: A fungus can turn flies into necrophiles.

My son and I were recently learning about fossils and evolution of early plants and animals, and he was wondering about what early fungi were like and how they evolved. Fungi are really under- appreciated. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information (especially not in a child-friendly form). He will like to watch parts of this outstanding documentary. Thank you for producing this amazing content.

Small correction: slime molds aren't fungi, but protozoa... they don't contain chitin, can move, some will bring food within the cell to digest it etc etc.

Psilocybin containing mushrooms are just amazing with so many health benefits. Psilocybin mushrooms saved my life honestly from PTSD and addiction to alcohol and cigarettes. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

40:30 Cherenkov radiation does not glow because water is being split. Cherenkov radiation is caused by particles moving through the water faster than the speed of light in water. The speed of light in water is 75% of the speed of light in a vacuum. So highly energetic particles given off by radioactive decay, can travel faster than the speed of light in water, while still being slower than the absolute limit of the speed of light in a vacuum. Cherenkov radiation is similar to the sonic boom shock wave for objects moving faster than the speed of sound. Cherenkov radiation is a shockwave of light waves as particles move faster than the speed of light of water.

Thank you. I enjoyed your video. I am a retired botany professor with a baccalaureate in chemistry. It is unfortunate that the study of fungi is so terribly neglected. Professor James Trapp (spelling) gave a series of guest lectures when I was at Brigham Young University for which I am grateful. Those lectures got me to do more reading about fungi. Thanks for your video.

34:42 "So far as to LICHEN this activity" I see what you did there! Subtle fungi puns are the best fungi puns! 😂

35:48 most if not all of the "lichen" showed on screen are actually just mosses, that are actually plants, in this very video I could see their sporophytes that are diagnostic of non-vascular plants, Idk why how a mistake like that happened judging by the quality of the documentary and channel too, it's a shame that the diverse group that are the lichens with their miriad of forms and coloers weren't showcased in that high quality documentary

When the histories of the Universe and and Earth narrowly pass each other by a week’s gap… great treat from both channels this week.

This entire sceries is so incredibly, jaw-droppingly well written! Huge kudos to Leila Battison, for her science poetry! I honestly don´t know any channel that does it better.

It cracks me up when the closed captions use "lichens" and "lycans" interchangeably. The idea that the combination of algea and fungus turn into a wolf on the full moon is just hilarious to me

I had no interest in fungi until I tripped on psilocybin. During one particularly potent trip, I "hallucinated" a discussion with the mushroom itself. 🍄 I was told how mushrooms cooperate with other lifeforms for mutual benefit, including humans, and if we only opened ourselves to this more, the fungi could help us more. I was then told about fighting viral infections and other medicinal benefits if we would use them properly. When I awoke the next day, I began researching the information that hallucination had told me, and surprisingly it was all true, especially the parts about anti-viral benefits. I cannot explain where or how this information came to me, but, there it was.

00:01 Intro 08:55 Part l - More Than Mushrooms 23:53 Part II - Ultimate Partnership 38:53 Part III - Fungal Earth 50:24 Part IV - The First Fungi

I thought I’d offer some pointers on Nahuatl pronunciation. The -tl is pronounced very quickly as one sound, not as its own syllable. The L is voiceless, so it sounds like a hiss. qu is ALWAYS pronounced like k, NEVER as kw. (kw is written as cu). hu is just a plain w sound. Stress falls on the penultimate syllable: Te-noch-TI-tlan, que-tzal-CO-huatl, te-o-NA-catl, a-HUI-tzotl.

After watching fantastic fungi, I am blown away by the magnificence of this fascinating organism. I’ve had my fair share of experience with golden teachers(I should add). It needs to be a humanitarian mission to get them decriminalised and regulated. The amount of ptsd and abuse studies that micro dose and get life changing results. It’s just wrong and it should be a human right to be able to explore within their own bodies without judgement.