Early fungi from the Proterozoic era in Arctic Canada

Corentin C. Loron (), Camille François, Robert H. Rainbird, Elizabeth C. Turner, Stephan Borensztajn and Emmanuelle J. Javaux ()
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Corentin C. Loron: University of Liège
Camille François: University of Liège
Robert H. Rainbird: Geological Survey of Canada
Elizabeth C. Turner: Laurentian University
Stephan Borensztajn: UMR 7154 CNRS, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
Emmanuelle J. Javaux: University of Liège

Nature, 2019, vol. 570, issue 7760, 232-235

Abstract: Abstract Fungi are crucial components of modern ecosystems. They may have had an important role in the colonization of land by eukaryotes, and in the appearance and success of land plants and metazoans1–3. Nevertheless, fossils that can unambiguously be identified as fungi are absent from the fossil record until the middle of the Palaeozoic era4,5. Here we show, using morphological, ultrastructural and spectroscopic analyses, that multicellular organic-walled microfossils preserved in shale of the Grassy Bay Formation (Shaler Supergroup, Arctic Canada), which dates to approximately 1,010–890 million years ago, have a fungal affinity. These microfossils are more than half a billion years older than previously reported unambiguous occurrences of fungi, a date which is consistent with data from molecular clocks for the emergence of this clade6,7. In extending the fossil record of the fungi, this finding also pushes back the minimum date for the appearance of eukaryotic crown group Opisthokonta, which comprises metazoans, fungi and their protist relatives8,9.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1217-0

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