Abstract
Agaricomycetes are major components of extant terrestrial ecosystems; however, their fruiting bodies are exceedingly rare as fossils. Reinvestigation of a peculiar fossil from Late Triassic sediments of southern Germany interpreted as a bracket fungus revealed that this fossil in fact represents a wood abnormality, resulting from injury to the cambium and subsequent callus growth in a <i>Baieroxylon</i> -like ginkgoalean wood. As a result, the fossil record of the Agaricomycetes does not yet pre-date the Early Cretaceous, suggesting a late diversification of basidiomycetes possessing large fruiting bodies. <br><br> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mmng.201200006" target="_blank">10.1002/mmng.201200006</a>
Highlights
The Agaricomycetes (= Homobasidiomycetes sensu Hibbett & Thorn 2001 plus Auriculariales and Sebacinales; see Hibbett 2007) comprise about 21,000 extant species (Kirk et al 2008)
Another putative fossil bracket fungus was later published from southern Germany and interpreted as a Fomes-like Polyporaceae representative attached to petrified wood (Fohrer & Simon 2002)
The incompleteness of the preservation of the wood and its level of decomposition prior to preservation means that some diagnostic features are lost, in particular the details of the secondary thickening of the tracheid walls
Summary
The Agaricomycetes (= Homobasidiomycetes sensu Hibbett & Thorn 2001 plus Auriculariales and Sebacinales; see Hibbett 2007) comprise about 21,000 extant species (Kirk et al 2008). Phellinites digiustoi Singer & Archangelsky, 1958, the most convincing pre-Cretaceous polypore fossil from the Jurassic of Argentina (Singer & Archangelsky 1958) was reassessed and found to be a piece of bark remains from an Araucariaceae representative (Hibbett et al 1997b). Another putative fossil bracket fungus was later published from southern Germany and interpreted as a Fomes-like Polyporaceae representative attached to petrified wood (Fohrer & Simon 2002).
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