Fossil fungi

Fossil remains of a deep subsurface biosphere are unequivocal traces of former deep life, as contamination via drilling or mining procedures can be excluded. However, traces of fossilized eukaryotic life in deep subterranean environments are extremely rare (Schumann et al., 2004). There are fossil representatives of all known domains of life, and while fossilized fungi do exist, they are exceptionally rare. The standard paleo-botanical literature refers to the lack of fossil records of fungi (Pia, 1927 Gothan Weyland, 1964 Pirozynski, 1976). 

Recently, the first fossil fungi have been found in the submarine, deep basaltic earth crust (Schumann et al., 2004). The fossils were detected in thin sections obtained from drilled basaltic cores collected during Ocean Drilling Program, Leg 200, in the North Pacific Ocean (Stephen et al., 2003). Unique filamentous fossilized fungi were observed in the carbonate-filled vesicles of a massive tholeiitic lava flow from the upper oceanic crust at a depth of 51 m below sea floor, beneath sediment and magmatic rocks, and under an overlying water column of about 5000 m (Fig. 16.1). These... 

As soon as it was known what to look for, sub-fossilized fungi also began to be found in the Flolocene oceanic basement from the Kolbeinsey Ridge (north of Iceland) from a water depth of nearly 1500 m. This basalt was also riddled with pores, but most were open, some filled with water and some partly filled with sediment or authigenic minerals (organomin-erals or microbialites). Most of these microbialites are iron hydroxide... 

Pirozynski, K. A. (1976). Fossil fungi. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 14, 237-46. 

Succinic Acid [Butanedioic acid. Amber acid, Ethylenesuccinic acid, Asuccin or Bemstein-saure (Ger)]. H.0.(0 )C.CH2.CH2.C( 0).0.H mw 118.09 odorless, monoclinic or triclinic crysts, V acid taste mp 185°, 185—187°, 188° (separate values) bp 235° (partial conversion into the anhydride) d 1.56g/cc RI 1.450. V sol in hot w, sol in acet, ethanol and eth insol in benz. CA Registry Nr (110-15-6]. Occurs in nature in fossils, fungi, lichens, etc. Prepn is by reaction of hydrogen peroxide with acetic acid. The isothermal of succinic acid at 25° is 3023.1 0.3cal/g (Ref 6)... 

In certain contemporary organisms, for instance, bacteria and fungi, 3-phospho-D-glyceroyl-phosphate polyphosphate phosphotransferase activity was found (Kulaev and Bobyk, 1971 Kulaev et al., 1971). The phosphate was transferred from 1,3-diphosphoglyceric acid, not to ADP to form ATP, as one could expect from the Meyerhof-Embden-Parnas scheme, but directly to PolyP. This fossil reaction was most expressed in an adenine deficient yeast mutant under cell adaptation to ATP depletion. 

Meuzelaar HLC, Haverkamp J, Hileman FD (1982) Pyrolysis mass spectrometry of recent and fossil biomatenals - compendium and atlas Elsevier, Amsterdam 293 pp Mulder MM, Pureveen JBM, Boon JJ, Martinez AT (1990) An analytical pyrolysis mass spectrometric study of Eucryphia cordifoha wood decayed by white-rot and brown-rot fungi J Anal Appl Pyrolysis 19 175-191... 

The earliest fossil record of fungi in terrestrial ecosystems occurred during the Ordovician period (480 to 460 MYBP) (Heckman et al, 2001). Since that time fungi have been ubiquitous components of the microbial... 

Fig. 12.8. Simplified sketch showing main relationships inside the coupled calcium and carbon cycles of the oxalate-carbonate pathway in a hypothetical ecosystem. Plants and fungi are oxalate producers. Oxalotrophic bacteria (in the soil or animal guts) use oxalate as carbon, energy and electron sources, leading to CO2 and calcium carbonate production. Calcium carbonate can accumulate inside the soils. Because the carbon of the carbonate originates from organic carbon, its fossilization in the soil constitutes a carbon sink.

Since there is limited information available as to how found fossil organisms lived or how they reproduced in the past, their true affinities may never be known. In addition, most fungi are not very well preserved in the fossil record, so it has been difficult to interpret the fossil record of fungi, leaving open the possibility of an earlier, unrecorded history (Gray Shear, 1992 Taylor Taylor, 1993 Taylor et al., 1994 Hibbett et al., 1995). 

According to estimates deduced from a molecular clock calibrated on the basis of the fossil record, fungi have existed for over 900 Ma... 

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