[TheRealPomax]

I'd certainly consider "describing a real example of a hitherto conjectured form of symbiosis" news enough. Publications aren't only for major news, the vast majority are "just news". This is a new thing, it's worth writing about. Whether this still qualifies as a lichen and we just need to update the canon around lichens, or whether this needs a new name because it behaves fundamentally different from how we understand lichen is entirely up for debate, and not one that this research tries to answer.

[contingo]

But it's not a "hitherto conjectured form of symbiosis". It's just another example of facultative lichenization, which has already been observed in species quite widely scattered across the fungal kingdom. That to me doesn't count as a "new type of coexistence". The actual research behind the headline is valuable and entirely worthy of publication (I've made similar contributions myself), my critique relates to the headline, the angle of the reportage.

[TheRealPomax]

Welcome to the internet, I guess. The only way science websites get clicks is with these idiotic titles. Ignore them, read the article, judge it on the actual text's merit.