Jennifer Frazer in her Artful Amoeba Blog offers a fascinating article about a layer of possible fungal mycelia in sedimentary rocks approximately 250 million years ago during the the Permian-Triassic Extinction. Scientists have referred to the organism as Reduviasporonites but they bear a close resemblance to the modern Rhizoctonia solani. A friend of mine spent her years in graduate school attempting to identify species of this organism at the U of MN Plant Pathology Laboratory. She would grow the organisms in culture and then use a doughnut hole cutter to extract mycelia of the same age for chemical analysis. The organism is important both as a plant decay fungi and in some cases mycorrhizal (breaking down nutrients in soil allowing plants to grow).
During this period of Great Dying 75% of the terrestrial land life was destroyed. It would have been a perfect time for this organism to ingest decaying vegetation. When the vegetation was consumed the organism would produce a scleroderma like structure (a tight ball of mycelia) to ride out a period with low amounts of decaying vegetation. Both the filamentous and scleroderma-like structure are found in the fossil record.
Nicholas P. Money, professor of Botany, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio has written a book covering the more recent success of fungal plant pathogens in wiping out trees and other species. His book is titled The Triumph of Fungi - A Rotten History. He lays out the moderately successful and sometimes futile attempts of humans to control destructive adaptable fungal pathogens.
During this period of Great Dying 75% of the terrestrial land life was destroyed. It would have been a perfect time for this organism to ingest decaying vegetation. When the vegetation was consumed the organism would produce a scleroderma like structure (a tight ball of mycelia) to ride out a period with low amounts of decaying vegetation. Both the filamentous and scleroderma-like structure are found in the fossil record.
Nicholas P. Money, professor of Botany, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio has written a book covering the more recent success of fungal plant pathogens in wiping out trees and other species. His book is titled The Triumph of Fungi - A Rotten History. He lays out the moderately successful and sometimes futile attempts of humans to control destructive adaptable fungal pathogens.
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