How fungi made Earth's atmosphere livable - new study

Fungi played a very important part in creating an atmosphere suitable for animal life by symbiotically supporting early plants to extract minerals from rocky soil. The earliest plants to dwell on land did not have well developed roots or vascular systems. Fungi, among the earliest colonizers of land, then facilitated the transfer of phosphorus from the rocky soil to the primitive plants, which required the mineral to photosynthesize. "The results of including data on fungal interactions present...

from Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building https://inhabitat.com/how-fungi-made-earths-atmosphere-livable-new-study
via Inhabitat