Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than the Pleistocene and none is older than the Cenozoic, although fossilized soils are preserved from as far back as the Archean.
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2 points
If I recall correctly, trees evolved before fungi, so for a while, there were just dead trees everywhere, not decomposing.
5 points
Correct, plants evolved lignin and nothing could eat lignin until fungi figured out how to process it after 30 million years of trying their best. Trees still eroded away due to environmental conditions, but it took considerably longer than today so they would get covered in leaves and whatnot and eventually became coal.