Oldest fossil basidiomycete clamp connections

Abstract

A rachis of the fossil filicalean fern Botryopteris antiqua containing abundant septate hyphae with clamp connections is preserved in a late Visean (Mississippian; ~330 Ma) chert from Esnost (Autun Basin) in central France. Largely unbranched tubular hyphae pass from cell to cell, but may sometimes produce a branch from a clamp connection. Other clamp-bearing hyphae occur clustered in individual cells or small groups of adjacent host cells. These hyphae may be tubular, catenulate with numerous hyphal swellings, or they may display a combination of both. The Visean hyphae with clamp connections predate Palaeancistrus martinii, the heretofore oldest direct fossil evidence of Basidiomycota, by some 25 Ma.