I'm an evolutionary biologist – here's why this ancient fungal fossil discovery is so revealing
- Written by Antonis Rokas, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences and Professor of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University
Do fungi like this _Penicillium_ mold, which produces the the antibiotic penicillin, trace their origins to an ancestor that lived a billion years ago?Rattiya Thongdumhyu/Shutterstock.comBiologists don’t call them “the hidden kingdom” for nothing. With an estimated 5 million species, only a mere 100,000 fungi are known to...