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LiveScience
LiveScience
Carys Matthews

Earliest known parasitic fungus discovered in fossilized plant frozen in time 400 million years ago

Microscopic image dyed red showing circular spores of the fungus.

The oldest disease-causing fungus ever found has been discovered within a museum's fossil collections. 

Estimated to be 407 million years old, the newfound fungal plant pathogen, named Potteromyces asteroxylicola, is a filamentous fungus — a type of fungi commonly associated with infections. 

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