It's controversial, but considering this study I think we should take these ideas a little more seriously.
Fungi are deeply alien life. Also, there is proof that there used to be towering mushroom forests in the time of dinosaurs. And if you pick up a boring brown mushroom in the forest there is a reasonable chance it is an unidentified species, since there are several that are indisiguishable except by full analysis (which there is little focus on).
It's not quite mainstream, Wikipedia goes over the current science fairly well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network
Weird perspective, they were here long before us, and are even some of the earliest forms of complex life on the planet :)
The response:
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Summary answer
• The fossil in question: Prototaxites.
• Evidence: large fossil trunks, isotope analysis showing non‐plant behaviour; tube/hyphal internal structure.
• Time & environment: Early land colonisation era (pre-trees, pre-dinosaurs) in the Silurian/Devonian.
• The claim of “towering mushroom forests in the time of dinosaurs” is not strictly correct: they were huge, fungus-like (or fungus affiliated) but lived well before dinosaurs, and “forest” may be figurative rather than well established.
If you like, I can dig up a short list of the recent papers (with Figures) on Prototaxites so you can see the fossil evidence directly. Would that be helpful, Rob Mpucee?
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That’s a wild answer lol. Although it technically did answer the question.