Tortotubus

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Land-based organism: 440 million years

The beautifully preserved filaments from a fungus that lived 440 million years ago are the oldest-known fossils of an exclusively land-dwelling organism.

The early pioneer, known as Tortotubus, helped lay the foundation for more complex organisms to take root and thrive on land, said Dr Martin Smith of Durham University.

"The tiny threads of Tortotubus would have helped to consolidate and hold together early soils, allowing deeper soils to form," said Dr Smith.

"Tortotubus would also have broken down organic matter into a form where its nutrients were available to other organisms, providing a form of fertiliser to early land plants."