The most ancient terrestrial lichen Winfrenatia reticulata: A new find and new interpretation

2009/01/01 by I. V. Karatygin, N. S. Snigirevskaya, S. V. Vikulin +1 · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Lichen and fungal ecology #Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions #Botany and Plant Ecology Studies

paper · doi:10.1134/s0031030109010110

Abstract

Silicified fossils from Rhynie cherts in Scotland are studied. A lichen belonging to the genus Winfrenatia is detected and studied. This oldest terrestrial lichen is dated to the Pragian (=Siegenian) of the Early Devonian. New characters of the lichen are described, and their new interpretation is given. The main component of the lichen thallus is a filamentous cyanobacterium (Nostocales). Structures which were interpreted as fungal hyphae are probably hollow sheaths of this cyanobacterium. Mycobiont hyphae develop at the base of the thallus and symbiose with a coccoid cyanobacterium. Thus, Winfrenatia reticulata is a three-parted organism, constituted of a mycobiont and filamentous and coccoid cyanobacteria.

Citations

• The variety of fungal-algal symbioses, their evolutionary significance, and the nature of lichens

Cited by

• Fungal colonizers of cyanobacteria from the Lower Devonian Rhynie cherts of Scotland
• THE RADIOSENSITIVITY OF THE OOCYTES OF ARTEMIA SALINA.
• The earliest records of internally stratified cyanobacterial and algal lichens from the Lower Devonian of the Welsh Borderland
• <i>Pinnaculosum</i> gen. nov.: a fossil form-genus for pinnacled biological soil crust

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• The earliest records of internally stratified cyanobacterial and algal lichens from the Lower Devonian of the Welsh Borderland
• THE RADIOSENSITIVITY OF THE OOCYTES OF ARTEMIA SALINA.
• The variety of fungal-algal symbioses, their evolutionary significance, and the nature of lichens
• Lichen algae: the photosynthetic partners in lichen symbioses
• <i>Prototaxites</i> was an extinct lineage of multicellular terrestrial eukaryotes