Online access to the Kalgutkar and Jansonius database of fossil fungi

Abstract

An important compendium of fossil fungi is now publicly available through a searchable online database. The original compendium was the work of Kalgutkar and Jansonius, who combed through 238 references and collated and annotated published descriptions for 1783 taxa of fungal fossils. By translating these data to a FileMaker Pro database and to the Web, we increase options for searching, sorting, annotating and updating this information. Database search results provide lists of names, ages and thumbnail images of palynomorphs. An individual record from the results list can be expanded in a new browser window to show a complete description for a taxon. The database is timely because developments in molecular systematics are helping to place spore characters in a phylogenetic framework. Some of the previously ambiguous fossil fungi can now be placed into phylogenetic lineages. We anticipate that the Web version of the data will serve as a convenient entry point into the fungal fossil record, leading to integration of more information from fossils into fungal phylogenies.

Extending the fossil record for foliicolous Dothideomycetes: Bleximothyrium ostiolatum gen. et sp. nov., a unique fly‐speck fungus from the Lower Cretaceous of Virginia, USA

“…Fossils of spores and fruiting bodies suggestive of Ascomycota become increasingly abundant and diverse through the Mesozoic, from 252 to 66 Ma (Kalgutkar and Jansonius, 2000; Berbee et al, 2014). However, most of the individual fossils are dispersed spores with too few characters to classify them definitively to Ascomycota, much less to any lower taxon.…”

“…The synopsis of published reports for fossil fungal form‐genera of Kalgutkar and Jansonius (2000), translated into a searchable public database (Berbee et al, 2014), includes 131 taxonomic records for fly‐speck fungi. These are among the most abundantly documented Mesozoic and Cenozoic fungi, with fossil records from the Triassic (252 Ma) to the Holocene (0.01 Ma to present) (Bajpai and Maheshwari, 1987; Kalgutkar and Jansonius, 2000; Sun et al, 2015; Mishra et al, 2018).…”

Taxonomy and palaeoecology of the fossil anamorphic fungus Mycoenterolobium eccentricum (R.K. Kar) G. Worobiec, n. comb.

“…& M.A. Curtis) S. Hughes & Deighton, 1960(Jain & Kar 1979 or as similar to Mycoenterolobium platysporum and classified as Fungi Imperfecti, Dictyosporae (Kalgutkar & Jansonius 2000;Berbee et al 2015). Thus, the relationship of the fossil Kutchiathyrites eccentricus with modern fungal genera has been disputable so far.…”

“…Jain & Kar (1979) noticed that "in Mycoenterolobium platysporum, the ascostromata is like a fish scale as in Kutchiathyrites and also possesses similar pseudoparenchymatous cells". Indeed, Kutchiathyrites eccentricus seems much the same as modern Mycoenterolobium platysporum and thus should not be considered as microthyriaceous sporocarp(Kalgutkar & Jansonius 2000;Berbee et al 2015). No researcher, however, so far decided to revise Kutchiathyrites eccentricus as fossil species of the modern genus Mycoenterolobium.…”