tyokkl's Journal

-and; I'm very glad to be here. While I didn't grow up going on hikes or visiting petting zoos, I did read about animals, dinosaurs, the Earth and space; and, almost incessantly at that lol. I've always been interested in ecology in one way or another; and, one fun fact about me that probably no-one cares about would be my love for ferns.

While much of the ancient life found on Earth has since evolved (sometimes in extraordinary fashion) from their once-but-also-subjectively-epitomized pinnacles of glory; ferns (pteridophytes) have maintained their vascular structure, and have fossils dating back as far as 360 million years ago.

Another cool thing about ferns would be their reproduction through spores; and, theoretically, this could be hypothesized as the basis for their resilience over such a long period of time. Similarly to mushrooms, the usage of spores as a means to reproduce allow to continue reproducing even within unideal climates and environments; and, even throughout drastic planetary changes, such as the various events of mass-extinction that have each been respectively hypothesized to kill off the dinosaurs.

Furthermore, spores have even allowed a genus of fungus known as the honey fungus (armillaria) to emerge. The biggest organism living now is of the armillaria genus as well; and, located under the forests near the border of Idaho and Oregon it lies. However, it's growth is reliant on pathogenic relationships; and so, in turn, many forests and tree-based ecosystems are periled by it.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of information; and, I wish all of my fellow iNaturalists good luck!

Original date of post: (May 29th; [iNaturalist 24hr cooldown])