I love this story and have repeated it to many people because of how wonderfully it sparks the imagination. Unfortunately, this theory simply doesn't hold up to modern evidence. It turns out we've had white rot fungi as long as we've had lignin
> Throughout the fossil record, evidence of decay is pervasive in all organic matter exposed subaerially during deposition, and high coal accumulation rates have continued to the present wherever environmental conditions permit.
> Rather than a consequence of a temporal decoupling of evolutionary innovations between fungi and plants, Paleozoic coal abundance was likely the result of a unique combination of everwet tropical conditions and extensive depositional systems during the assembly of Pangea.
I love this story and have repeated it to many people because of how wonderfully it sparks the imagination. Unfortunately, this theory simply doesn't hold up to modern evidence. It turns out we've had white rot fungi as long as we've had lignin
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517943113