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In the saturated carbon dioxide atmosphere of the Paleozoic era lived the first single-celled plants. For life they need phosphorus, which is not so easy to obtain from the environment, if not roots, the suction from the soil salts, including phosphorous and cellular plant roots were not.
At the fossil imprints of the Devonian flora paleobiology had established that the then plants live in symbiosis with fungi, which received phosphorus in exchange for fixed carbon.
Terrestrial atmosphere time of appearance of the first photosynthetic plants on land were very different from today. It was a lot of carbon dioxide — more than 1100 ppm (current CO2 concentration is only 400 ppm, and environmentalists are sounding the alarm). Terrestrial plants gradually made the atmosphere oxygen suitable for the growth and development of animals — including people. But alone plants would not be able — at least at first, when they didn’t have roots (and the first plants were single-celled, and the roots they were not) to suck from the soil of dissolved salts of phosphorus-containing acids (and phosphorus is needed for photosynthesis).
At the fossil imprints of the Devonian flora paleobiology had established that the then plants live in symbiosis with mushrooms. Especially many fungi found in fossilized swamps Relieve features in Scotland; these findings formed the basis of the hypothesis that fungi played an important role in the ecosystem of the Paleozoic.
There is a hypothesis that this symbiosis allowed the plants to develop and evolve, in the end, to have roots and to fill the Earth’s atmosphere with oxygen, which later made possible the evolution of animals, including humans. Many modern mushrooms continue to live in symbiosis with plants, supplying them with the minerals (including phosphorus) from the soil in exchange for fixed carbon.
Paleobiology from the University of Leeds (UK) measured the fluctuations in the concentration of CO2 and oxygen in the containers with plants and different types of modern fungi-symbionts. Then, on the basis of experimental data, the researchers modeled the changing composition of the atmosphere of ancient Earth and came to the conclusion that the symbiosis of plants and fungi could have a significant impact on the formation of the modern atmosphere of the Earth.
It is possible that single-celled fungi helped the plants to live and grow, grow roots, to get the leaves and eventually to create the conditions for the emergence of mammals, including humans.
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