White-rotting fungus with clamp-connections in a coniferous wood from the Lower Cretaceous of Heilongjiang Province, NE China

• Published in: Cretaceous Research
• Main Authors: Tian, Ning, Wang, Yongdong （王永栋）, Zheng, Shaolin, Zhu, Zhipeng
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD 2020
• Subjects: Basidiomycota; White rot; Clamp-connection; Early Cretaceous; China; SP-NOV; SELECTIVE DELIGNIFICATION; EASTERN HEILONGJIANG; PALEOZOIC FUNGI; ROT FUNGI; DECAY; FOREST; ANTARCTICA; ARTHROPOD; EVOLUTION; Geology; Paleontology; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://ir.nigpas.ac.cn/handle/332004/29525; http://ir.nigpas.ac.cn/handle/332004/29526; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2018.11.011

Fossil fungi are very important components for shaping the paleoecosystem, but they are rarely documented in the geological record. Here we report a well-preserved fossil mycelium consisting of clamp-bearing septate hyphae in a petrified coniferous wood (Cupressinoxylon baomiqiaoense Zheng et Zhang) from the Lower Cretaceous Yunshan Formation in Heilongjiang Province, NE China. The fungal hyphae, with a diameter of ca. 2.5 mu m, are tubular in shape with septa and clamp-connections. Taxo-nomically, the nature and occurrence of typical clamp-connections indicate that the present fungal remains be referred to the Basidiomycota. Ecologically, this fossil mycelium is proposed to be a saprotroph, i.e., a wood rotting fungus. The wood decay symptoms of the wood host strongly indicate that the present fungal mycelium to be a white-rotting fungus. This fossil mycelium represents the first fossil fungal record from the Cretaceous of Northeast China, and provides further evidence for investigating the plant-fungal interaction in the Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.