A microscopic multicellular fungus roughly one billion years old.

Fungi are so much more than a topping on your pizza. While this unassuming kingdom of organisms might not get the same love or respect as plants or animals, they play an unbelievably crucial role in the story of life on planet Earth.

That’s why scientists are so excited to announce the discovery of the world’s oldest fungi fossils. The minuscule fossils date to somewhere between 900 million and 1 billion years ago, pushing back the previously confirmed record holder for the world’s first fungus fossil by almost half a billion years.

At the grand old age of 1 billion, it looks like this discovery could also be a candidate for some of the earliest multicellular life on land.

“Fungi are one of the more diverse groups of eukaryotes known today and, despite this, their ancient fossil record is very scarce,” study author Corentin Loron from the University of Liège in Belgium told IFLScience.

Reported in the journal Nature, the Ourasphaira giraldae microfossils were found in the shale of the Arctic […]