Oldest lichens found, according to reports in Science, vol 308, p1017, 13 May 2005 and New Scientist, 21 May 2005, p20. Lichens are a symbiotic combination of algae and fungi. Chinese and American scientists have found fossil lichens in rocks of the Doushanto Formation in southern China, which have been dated as 551 to 635 million years old. This makes them about 200 million years older than the previous oldest lichen fossils in the Rhynie chert in Scotland. On the evolutionary tree this puts them before the origin of multicellular animals and land plants.
Editorial Comment: The reason they were recognised as lichens is because they look like the lichens that live on earth today. Whatever age these fossils actually are, they have multiplied after their kind, just as Genesis says. They have no known fossil ancestors, so this discovery is no help to the evolutionists, but it is evidence consistent with them having been created as fully functioning entities. (Ref. lichens, fossils, after kind)