Abstract
The Basidiomycota is a monophyletic group with more than 31,000 living species known, approximately one third of all fungi; however, molecular and genetic studies indicate that there is greater diversity within this group yet to be discovered. Included in the group are the mushrooms, smuts, and rusts. The Basidiomycota are important contributors to ecosystem functioning at multiple levels and are the major degraders of different components in wood, including lignin. The most diagnostic feature of the group is a club-shaped structure, the basidium, on which meiospores (basidiospores) are produced. The group is probably ancient, but the early fossil record is difficult to interpret because of the lack of diagnostic features; the oldest clamp connection dates to the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous). The vast majority of fossil basidiomycetes described to date come from the Cenozoic.
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