Dr. Jeffrey M. Osborn

Publication Abstract

Osborn, J. M., T. N. Taylor, and J. F. White, Jr. 1989. Palaeofibulus, gen. nov., a clamp-bearing fungus from the Triassic of Antarctica. Mycologia 81: 622-626.

A clamp-bearing fossil fungus is reported from silicified plant tissues of early-middle Triassic age from Antarctica. Palaeofibulus antarctica gen. et sp. nov. represents the third unequivocal clamp-bearing fungus described from the fossil record. Specimens consist of a branched, septate mycelium and chains of thick-walled dikaryotic spores or chlamydospores. Affinities with several present-day fungi are considered. The Triassic fungus is most comparable to modern basidiomycetes, however, without documented basidia precise taxonomic assignment remains equivocal and it is therefore suggested to be a 'conidial basidiomycete'. Ecologically, this clamped fungus most likely represents an example of a generalized saprophyte.

Palaeofibulus antarctica , fossil fungi, clamp connections, basidiomycetes, Triassic, Antarctica.