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Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

livescience.com

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Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#121

Post by jfengel »

intsunny wrote: post #52

The article about the study writes: `The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.` We should just stop reading the article then and there. This is a major method of how a single study can perpetuate fake science and fake news.

We should, but we don't.

People want the news now. They don't want to wait for it to be peer reviewed, or even cursorily checked. There is an infinite maw for information, and it has already consumed every single known fact.

If you want science, you'll wait a month, because it's not actually urgent. These species waited hundreds of millions of years and it'll still be there in a few weeks.

If you want entertainment, you want it right this instant. And that's what LiveScience exists to do.

So you really should have stopped reading as soon as you saw the URL.

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#122

Post by guerrilla »

qbxk wrote: post #3

> Prototaxites did not contain chitin, a major building block of fungal cell walls and a hallmark of the fungal kingdom. The Prototaxites fossils instead appeared to contain chemicals similar to lignin, which is found in the wood and bark of plants. ... best considered a member of a previously undescribed, entirely extinct group of eukaryotes So these are the ancestors of Groot? or Ents? and all manner of "animated t…

I am Groot. I am Groot? I am Groot.

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#123

Post by ChuckMcM »

This was an interesting read, and reminded me how paleo-biology is the closest thing to exobiology we've got. Looking at the different biomes that emerged on planet earth over a billion years feels equivalent to looking at a thousand different planets at the same time. Basically a thousand chance to see what that 'megayear' produced, life wise.

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#124

Post by quesera »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #55
9dev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well in very practical terms, it gives you a way to name things you see in the forest, to figure out what is edible, and to understand what has a sentience of its own, similar to yours. I don’t mean to be snarky, but it seems like you’re very removed from the reality of normal people and parents out there.

The reality of normal people and parents is that a different basic classification is warranted: - Humans are what they are; - Animals are what they are; - Plants and fungi of the kind you can gather in the forest, and anything else that is macro-scale but doesn't run or swim around, are just "plants"; - Bacteria, viruses, fungi of the other kind, archaea and even single-cellular organisms that could have negative imp…

> That covers about all the biology regular people see, to the extent they care about.

Insects and spiders are feeling left out.

That insects and mammals are both Animalia can be nonintuitive for preschoolers.

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#125

Post by mmooss »

quesera wrote: post #124
TeMPOraL wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality of normal people and parents is that a different basic classification is warranted: - Humans are what they are; - Animals are what they are; - Plants and fungi of the kind you can gather in the forest, and anything else that is macro-scale but doesn't run or swim around, are just "plants"; - Bacteria, viruses, fungi of the other kind, archaea and even single-cellular organisms that could have negative imp…

> That covers about all the biology regular people see, to the extent they care about. Insects and spiders are feeling left out. That insects and mammals are both Animalia can be nonintuitive for preschoolers.

Parazoa (e.g., sponges), radially-symmetrical creatures (jellyfish, corals, etc.), acoelomates (flatworms, I think), pseudocoelomates (nematode parasites, roundworms), echinodermata (sand dollars, sea urchins, etc), lophotrochozoans (molluscs, some worms, many more).

A 19th century breakdown by Cuvier, influential for a long time, was: Vertebrates, arthropods, molluscs, radiates. (I don't know where worms fit.)

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#126

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

btilly wrote: post #113
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pretty sure anyone who knows anything about viruses would say they are alive Whilst I don't doubt that, viruses don't abide by typical definitions of life that would include self-replication. Obviously, they do replicate, but not by themselves.

Men like me also don't replicate by ourselves. Does that mean that we are not alive?

Humans though, can create more humans, but viruses can't create more viruses without using the machinery within a cell that it compromises.

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#127

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

Izkata wrote: post #114
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pretty sure anyone who knows anything about viruses would say they are alive Whilst I don't doubt that, viruses don't abide by typical definitions of life that would include self-replication. Obviously, they do replicate, but not by themselves.

I thought "has a metabolism" (consumes food and produces waste) was the one viruses didn't fit with.

That as well. They also don't respond to their environment.

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#128

Post by IIsi50MHz »

blueflow wrote: post #36
alexey-salmin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly disagree. It's necessary to teach oversimplified things to small minds, even oversimplified to the extent of being incorrect. It's unlikely you understand relativistic mechanics unless you learn and practice Newtonian for a few years, then many people stop there and never go for relativism. It's unlikely you understand Peano axioms without first spending years just working with numbers, completely disregar…

It wouldn't be so nice if it was oversimplified and incorrect to the extent that the child realizes it doesn't add up.

Had this experience more than once, but the one that comes to mind:

In high school chemistry, the teacher was reviewing what we should remember from lower school about atoms & molecules (single bonds, double bonds, slots available for single atoms of different elements). I asked something like "If the model we were using treats the bonding sites on every atom of every element as equal, but says that some molecules are either rarer than others or not known to occur in nature, doesn't that mean the model is incomplete or incorrect?". She instantly shook her head with annoyance and said sternly "No.".

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#129

Post by amy214 »

BrenBarn wrote: post #18

> Upon examining the internal structure of the fossilized Prototaxites, the researchers found that its interior was made up of a series of tubes Who knew the internet evolved millions of years ago?

Who knews the scope and breadth of the reach of Al Gore, internet inventor, conceiver of the series of tubes paradaigm. Perhaps he has a tube all the way back 400 million years ago amongst his tube series

https://www.pellcenter.org/did-al-gore-invent-the-internet/

Re: Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

#130

Post by TeMPOraL »

quesera wrote: post #124
TeMPOraL wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality of normal people and parents is that a different basic classification is warranted: - Humans are what they are; - Animals are what they are; - Plants and fungi of the kind you can gather in the forest, and anything else that is macro-scale but doesn't run or swim around, are just "plants"; - Bacteria, viruses, fungi of the other kind, archaea and even single-cellular organisms that could have negative imp…

> That covers about all the biology regular people see, to the extent they care about. Insects and spiders are feeling left out. That insects and mammals are both Animalia can be nonintuitive for preschoolers.

> That insects and mammals are both Animalia can be nonintuitive for preschoolers.

Insects and mammals both walk around. Plants and shrooms don't. Can't get more obvious than that for a kid.

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