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Diversity of lichen-associated filamentous fungi preserved in European Paleogene amber

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2018

Elina Kettunen ,
Alexander R. Schmidt ,
Paul Diederich ,
Heinrich Grabenhorst  and
Jouko Rikkinen
Elina Kettunen
Affiliation:
Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, Helsinki, FIN-00014, Finland.
Alexander R. Schmidt*
Affiliation:
Department of Geobiology, University of Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, D-37077, Göttingen, Germany. Email: alexander.schmidt@geo.uni-goettingen.de
Paul Diederich
Affiliation:
National Museum of Natural History, 25 rue Munster, L-2160 Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Heinrich Grabenhorst
Affiliation:
Amber Study Group, c/o Geological-Palaeontological Institute and Museum of the University of Hamburg, Bundesstraße 55, D-20146, Hamburg, Germany.
Jouko Rikkinen
Affiliation:
Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, Helsinki, FIN-00014, Finland. Finnish Museum of Natural History, Botany Unit, PO Box 7, Helsinki, FIN-00014, Finland.
*
*Corresponding author
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Abstract

A diversity of filamentous microfungi was discovered from thallus surfaces of epiphytic lichens preserved in Bitterfeld and Baltic amber. We report seven distinct morphologies of dematiaceous hyphomycetes, some of which closely resemble species of the extant genera Sporidesmium, Taeniolella s. lat. and Taeniolina. Both the placement of the fungi on their substrates and the exquisite preservation of delicate structures indicate that the fungi were fully developed before they were engulfed by fresh resin. The lichens probably grew on the trunks of resin producing trees and became embedded in resin flows together with their fungal associates. The findings demonstrate that a wide range of presumably specialised fungi have lived on living and decomposing lichen thalli at least since the Paleogene. The findings add an interesting new component to the as yet poorly known mycota of the ancient European amber forests.

Keywords

Ascomycotahyphomyceteslichenicolous fungiMetacapnodiaceaesooty mouldsSporidesmiumTaeniolella
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 107 , Issue 2-3: Fossil Insects, Arthropods and Amber , June 2016 , pp. 311 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2017 

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