Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften, Paläontologie und Geobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, and SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Richard-Wagner-Straße 10, 80333 Munich, Germany
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Biodiversity Institute, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2018 Feb 5;373(1739). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0500.
The Lower Devonian Rhynie chert is one of the most important rock deposits yielding comprehensive information on early continental plant, animal and microbial life. Fungi are especially abundant among the microbial remains, and include representatives of all major fungal lineages except Basidiomycota. This paper surveys the evidence assembled to date of fungal hyphae, mycelial cords and reproductive units (e.g. spores, sporangia, sporocarps), and presents examples of fungal associations and interactions with land plants, other fungi, algae, cyanobacteria and animals from the Rhynie chert. Moreover, a small, chytrid-like organism that occurs singly, in chain-like, linear arrangements, planar assemblages and three-dimensional aggregates of less than 10 to [Formula: see text] individuals in degrading land plant tissue in the Rhynie chert is formally described, and the name proposed for the organism. probably colonized senescent or atrophied plant parts and participated in the process of biological degradation. The fungal fossils described to date from the Rhynie chert constitute the largest body of structurally preserved evidence of fungi and fungal interactions from any rock deposit, and strongly suggest that fungi played important roles in the functioning of the Early Devonian Rhynie ecosystem.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The Rhynie cherts: our earliest terrestrial ecosystem revisited'.
下泥盆纪的 Rhynie 燧石是最重要的岩石矿床之一，提供了有关早期大陆植物、动物和微生物生命的全面信息。真菌在微生物遗骸中特别丰富，包括除担子菌门以外所有主要真菌谱系的代表。本文综述了迄今为止收集到的真菌菌丝、菌丝索和生殖单位（如孢子、孢子囊、孢子果）的证据，并展示了 Rhynie 燧石中真菌与陆地植物、其他真菌、藻类、蓝细菌和动物的共生和相互作用的例子。此外，还正式描述了一种在 Rhynie 燧石中单独出现、呈链状、线性排列、平面组合和三维聚集的小于 10 到 [Formula: see text] 个个体的小型、类似壶菌的生物体，该生物体存在于降解陆地植物组织的过程中，为该生物体提出了 的名称。该生物体可能定殖于衰老或萎缩的植物部位，并参与了生物降解过程。迄今为止，从 Rhynie 燧石中描述的真菌化石构成了从任何岩石矿床中保存下来的最大的真菌结构证据和真菌相互作用的证据，强烈表明真菌在早期泥盆纪 Rhynie 生态系统的功能中发挥了重要作用。本文是对“Rhynie 燧石：重新审视我们最早的陆地生态系统”讨论会议议题的一部分。
