• DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1217-0
• Corpus ID: 162180486

Early fungi from the Proterozoic era in Arctic Canada

@article{Loron2019EarlyFF,
  title={Early fungi from the Proterozoic era in Arctic Canada},
  author={Corentin C. Loron and Camille François and R H Rainbird and Elizabeth C Turner and St{\'e}phan Borensztajn and Emmanuelle J Javaux},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2019},
  volume={570},
  pages={232-235}
}

• Corentin C. Loron, C. François, +3 authors E. Javaux
• Published 22 May 2019
• Environmental Science, Geography
• Nature

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.Morphological, ultrastructural and spectroscopic analyses identify a fungal affinity for microfossils in shale from Arctic Canada, which pushes back the date for this kingdom to 1,010–890 million years ago.