For more than 165 years, one of the earliest giants to rise above Earth’s barren land has defied classification. Known as Prototaxites, the towering, column-like organism dominated terrestrial landscapes more than 400 million years ago, reaching heights of up to 8 m (26 feet) long before trees evolved. A new study by paleontologists from the University of Edinburgh and National Museums Scotland argues that this enigmatic organism was not a massive...
