A study recently published in Science Advances focused on Prototaxites taiti, a species preserved in exceptional detail within the 407-million-year-old Rhynie chert in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. A reconstruction shows Prototaxites taiti towering over the ancient 407-million-year-old Rhynie chert hot spring environment. They compared the chemical fingerprint of Prototaxites with fossil fungi, arthropods, plants and bacteria from the Rhynie chert. This compound had previously been identified in other Rhynie chert fossils, but it was absent from the analyzed Prototaxites samples. Visual reconstruction of the ancient organism Prototaxites taiti.