THE COOL DOWN - A Californian research team found fungi inside desert moss tissue, a result that could change how scientists think about plant life on land.
According to Discover Wildlife, the implications may reach beyond moss biology. If the association is confirmed as a true symbiosis, it could also help explain how plants first moved from the sea onto land around 470 million years ago.
What's happening?
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside examined moss from several California environments, including biocrusts in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. They also examined wetter sites and found fungal DNA within the plants. Their findings were published in the journal New Phytologist.