Dr. Jeffrey M. Osborn

Publication Abstract

Taylor, T. N. and J. M. Osborn. 1996. The importance of fungi in shaping the paleoecosystem. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 90: 249-262.

Although fungi have a long geologic history, many aspects regarding their origins and subsequent evolution remain impossible to document from the fossil record. As heterotrophs, fungi must interact with other organisms, and it is here that the fossil record can provide an important source of biological and paleoecological information about fungal interactions. Saprophytic, parasitic and biotrophic interactions among fungi and other organisms are ancient; examples of these interrelationships are discussed as they related to the establishment and evolution of the biological and physical paleoecosystem.