Ancient fungi built the soil that made life possible.

Fungi are often dismissed as little more than mushrooms and mold, yet their ancient relatives once held the keys to Earth’s transformation. Recent studies reveal that fungi dominated terrestrial environments for nearly a billion years before plants appeared, breaking down rock and shaping the first soils. These discoveries, based on fossil evidence and genetic studies published in the past decade, suggest fungi were not just passengers in Earth’s history but engineers of it. Without them, plants, animals, and eventually humans would never have found a foothold on land.