Deccanodia

Fungalpedia – Note 198, Deccanodia (Fossil Fungi)

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

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

Classification: Sphaeropsidales, Fossil Ascomycota.

The monotypic genus Deccanodia was instituted by Singhai (1974) from the Deccan Intertrappean Beds (Late Cretaceous–Maastrichtian, 72–66 mya) of Mohgaonkalan, Chhindwara District, Madhya Pradesh, India. It is characterized by brown, more or less globose, non-ostiolate, thick-walled pycnidium, 345 × 364 µm in size; conidia many, faintly to dark brown in a mass, unequally 2–celled, oblong or ellipsoid, with their ends pointed or rounded, or one end pointed and the other round, measuring 12–24 × 2–8 µm.

According to Singhai (1974), the fossil fungus resembles the extant imperfect fungus Diplodia Fr. in its pycnidium and 2-celled, brown, and mostly ellipsoid conidia (Barnett 1960, Gilman 1959). The size of the conidia of the extant species Diplodia zeae (6 × 25–30 µm) also nearly agrees with the size (2–8 ×12–24 µm) of the fungus. However, in Diplodia, black pycnidia and equal 2-celled conidia are present, thus showing a distinct difference from the fossil fungus, which has slightly brown pycnidium and unequally divided 2-celled conidia. The fossil fungus also resembles Apiocarpella Syd., belonging to Fungi Imperfecti, in having unequally 2-celled, ellipsoid conidia (Barnett, 1960). But Apiocarpella conidia are hyaline, long, and ovoid and thus can be distinctly differentiated from the fossil ones.

Type species: Deccanodia eocena Singhai.