Fungalpedia – Note 158, Basidiosporites (Fossil Fungi)

 

Basidiosporites Elsik.

Citation when using this data: Saxena RK & Hyde KD. (2024) in prep – Fungalpedia, Fossil Fungi. 

Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1

Classification: Amerosporae, Fossil Fungi.

The monotypic fossil genus Basidiosporites was instituted by Elsik (1968) from the Rockdale lignite (Palaeocene, 66–56 mya) from a locality 11 km southwest of Rockdale, Milam County, Texas, USA (Salard-Cheboldaeff & Locquin 1980). Basidiosporites is characterized by oval to capsular, monoporate, unicellate, and psilate fungal spores with the pore offset from one apex. No basal attachment area is evident. Shape variables generally elongate in some fashion (Saxena & Tripathi 2011). There are four species included in Index Fungorum (2023) under this genus.

Type species: Basidiosporites fournieri Elsik.

 

 

Figure 1 – Basidiosporites fournieri. Scale bar = 5 μm. Redrawn from Elsik (1968)

 

References

Elsik WC. 1968 – Palynology of a Paleocene Rockdale lignite, Milam County, Texas. 1. Morphology and taxonomy. Pollen Spores 10(2), 263–314.

Salard-Cheboldaeff M, Locquin MV. 1980 – Champignons présents au Tertiaire le long du littoral de l’Afrique équatoriale. 105e Congrès National des Sociétés savantes, Caen, 1980, Sciences, fascicule 1, 183–195.

Saxena RK, Tripathi SKM. 2011 – Indian fossil fungi. Palaeobotanist 60, 1–208.

 

Entry by

Ramesh K. Saxena, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India

 

(Edited by Kevin D. Hyde, Samaneh Chaharmiri-Dokhaharani, & Achala R. Rathnayaka)

Back to Glossary Index Page