115 million years ago, during the Cretaceous, the Earth was dominated by dinosaurs - tyrannosaurus, spinosaurus, velociraptor, and triceratops are some of the giants of this era. Our planet did not have the same geographic distribution as today, with a supercontinent called Gondwana still generating the present lands.

And it was precisely on Brazilian soil that scientists found a mushroom fossil from this far-off era, possibly the oldest record of a mushroom in the world. He is believed to have fallen into a river and been dragged into a salt lagoon, where he was buried under sediment to the point of fossilization.

115 million year old mushroom found in Brazilian lands (Image: Jared Thomas. Danielle Ruffatto design)

After millions of years, it was found along with other fossil records in the Crato Formation, in the Chapada do Araripe region, between Ceará, Piauí and Pernambuco. Who identified the mushroom was paleontologist Sam Heads, a specialist in fossilized insects, during the cataloging of found materials.

Mushrooms are very difficult to fossilize, so much so that there are only 10 specimens worldwide, all of which had been preserved in amber after tree resin dripped to the ground and covered them. The oldest specimen before the new discovery was 100 million years old.

The Crato Formation mushroom is believed to be from the Strophariaceae family, but it is difficult to hit the hammer accurately. So you can't tell if it was an edible, toxic or hallucinogenic fungus.

Gondwana supercontinent planisphere with the location where the mushroom fossilized

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