This is mostly a silly thing.

I was initially going to post this as part of a R.I.O.T. when Fenyx4 sent it to me some months ago, but then decided to save it for this day — the day that Ultima 8 was released on GOG.com. From Reuters:

Scientists have identified the Godzilla of fungi, a giant, prehistoric fossil that has evaded classification for more than a century, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

A chemical analysis has shown that the 20-foot-tall (6-metre) organism with a tree-like trunk was a fungus that became extinct more than 350 million years ago, according to a study appearing in the May issue of the journal Geology.

Known as Prototaxites, the giant fungus originally was thought to be a conifer. Then some believed it was a lichen, or various types of algae. Some suspected it was a fungus.

“A 20-foot-fungus doesn’t make any sense. Neither does a 20-foot-tall algae make any sense, but here’s the fossil,” C. Kevin Boyce, a University of Chicago assistant professor of geophysical sciences, said in a statement.

Of course, we Ultima fans know that giant mushrooms make perfect sense:

Those gotta be at least 6 feet tall.

But it’s still nice to know there’s some actual evidence for such things.