myrmepropagandist on Nostr: I still do not understand why prototaxites had to be three to nine meters tall. ...

I still do not understand why prototaxites had to be three to nine meters tall. Nothing was tall back then. Plants are tall to avoid the shade of other plants. Prototaxites (probably) didn't "need" sunlight.

Spore dispersal isn't a good reason to be tall IMO.

If Prototaxites were just the stalk of a "fruiting body" of a fungus the network of mycelium must have been massive. Some prototaxites fossils show evidence of creatures/fungi colonizing them.

But we don't really know. Drives me nuts.