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Acaulosporoid glomeromycotan spores with a germination shield from the 400-million-year-old Rhynie chert
Dotzler, Nora Walker, Christopher Krings, Michael Hass, Hagen Kerp, Hans Taylor, Thomas N. Agerer, Reinhard
Dotzler, Nora
Walker, Christopher
Krings, Michael
Hass, Hagen
Kerp, Hans
Taylor, Thomas N.
Agerer, Reinhard
Citations
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Abstract
Scutellosporites devonicus from the Early Devonian
Rhynie chert is the only fossil glomeromycotan spore
taxon known to produce a germination shield. This paper
describes a second type of glomeromycotan spore with a
germination shield from the Rhynie chert. In contrast to S.
devonicus, however, these spores are acaulosporoid and
develop laterally in the neck of the sporiferous saccule.
Germination shield morphology varies, from plate-like with
single or double lobes to tongue-shaped structures usually
with infolded margins that are distally fringed or palmate.
Spore walls are complex and appear to be constructed of at
least three wall groups, the outermost of which includes the
remains of the saccule. The complement of features
displayed by the fossils suggests a relationship with the
extant genera Ambispora, Otospora, Acaulospora or
Archaeospora, but which of these is the closest extant
relative cannot be determined. The acaulosporoid spores
from the Rhynie chert document that this spore type was in
existence already ∼400 mya, and thus contribute to a more
complete understanding of the evolutionary history of the
Glomeromycota. This discovery pushes back the evolutionary
origin of all main glomeromycotan groups, revealing that
they had evolved before rooted land plants had emerged.
Description
This is the publisher's version, which is being shared with permission. The original version is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11557-008-0573-1
Date
2009
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Publisher
Springer
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Keywords
Fossil fungi, Glomeromycota, Pragian-? earliest emsian (early devonian), Spore-sacculae complex, Spore wall
Citation
Dotzler, N., Walker, C., Krings, M., Hass, H., Kerp, H., Taylor, T.,
Agerer, R. 2009. Acaulosporoid glomeromycotan spores with a germination
shield from the 400-million-year-old Rhynie chert. Mycol
Progress 8:9-18.