Glomalean Fungi from the Ordovician

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 289; no. 5486; pp. 1920 - 1921
• Main Authors: Redecker, Dirk, Kodner, Robin, Graham, Linda E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 15.09.2000; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Ascomycota; Biological Evolution; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Evidence; Exact sciences and technology; Flora; Fossils; Fungal spores; Fungi; Fungi - classification; Fungi - physiology; Hyphae; Invertebrate paleontology; Land Settlement; Microscopy; Mycorrhizae; Mycorrhizas; Ordovician; Paleontology; Phylogeny; Plant morphogenesis; Plants; Plants - microbiology; Prehistoric era; Rocks; Spores, Fungal; Symbiosis; Wisconsin; United States; Wisconsin; United States > US; Paleozoic; paleoecology; fungi; spores; Plantae; phylogeny; Ordovician; North America; Thallophyta
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5486.1920

Fossilized fungal hyphae and spores from the Ordovician of Wisconsin (with an age of about 460 million years) strongly resemble modern arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomales, Zygomycetes). These fossils indicate that Glomales-like fungi were present at a time when the land flora most likely only consisted of plants on the bryophytic level. Thus, these fungi may have played a crucial role in facilitating the colonization of land by plants, and the fossils support molecular estimates of fungal phylogeny that place the origin of the major groups of terrestrial fungi (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Glomales) around 600 million years ago.