Protaxites - девятиметровый гриб эпохи девона

В те времена являлся самым большим организмом на планете. Надо сказать, что и сейчас самым большим организмом является гриб - это мичиганский опенок, который занимает огромную плошадь и весит намного больше всяких слонов и прочей мелочи.
Слава грибам!

With a diameter of up to a meter, and a height reaching 9 m, Prototaxites fossils are by far the largest from its period of existence. Viewed from afar, the fossils take the form of tree-trunks, spreading slightly near their base in a fashion that suggests a connection to unpreserved root-like structures.[2] Concentric growth rings, sometimes containing embedded plant material,[3] suggest that the organism grew sporadically by the addition of external layers. It is probable that the preserved "trunks" represent the fruiting body, or "sporophore", of a fungus, which would have been fuelled by a net ("mycelium") of dispersed filaments ("hyphae"). On a microscopic scale, the fossils consist of narrow tube-like structures, which weave around one another. These come in two 'flavours': skeletal "tubes", 20-50 μm across, have thick (2-6 μm) walls and are undivided for their length, and generative "filaments", which are septate - that is to say, they bear internal walls. In Prototaxites, they are also thinner (5-10 μm diameter) and branch frequently; these mesh together to form the organism's matrix.


Подробно о грибе на русском тут:
http://www.membrana.ru/articles/global/2007/04/24/190300.html