Articles | Volume 15, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.1002/mmng.201200006
https://doi.org/10.1002/mmng.201200006
01 Aug 2012
 | 01 Aug 2012

Pre-Cretaceous Agaricomycetes yet to be discovered: Reinvestigation of a putative Triassic bracket fungus from southern Germany

A. P. Kiecksee, L. J. Seyfullah, H. Dörfelt, J. Heinrichs, H. Süß, and A. R. Schmidt

Abstract. Agaricomycetes are major components of extant terrestrial ecosystems; however, their fruiting bodies are exceedingly rare as fossils. Reinvestigation of a peculiar fossil from Late Triassic sediments of southern Germany interpreted as a bracket fungus revealed that this fossil in fact represents a wood abnormality, resulting from injury to the cambium and subsequent callus growth in a Baieroxylon -like ginkgoalean wood. As a result, the fossil record of the Agaricomycetes does not yet pre-date the Early Cretaceous, suggesting a late diversification of basidiomycetes possessing large fruiting bodies.

doi:10.1002/mmng.201200006