Fungalpedia – Note 187 Dicellaesporites (Fossil Fungi)
Dicellaesporites Elsik.
Citation when using this data: Saxena RK & Hyde KD. 2024 (in prep) – Fungalpedia, Fossil Fungi.
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Classification: Didymosporae, Fossil Fungi.
The monotypic fossil genus Dicellaesporites was described by Elsik (1968) from the Paleocene sediments (66–56 mya) in a strip mine approximately 11 km southwest of Rockdale, Milam County, Texas, USA and was diagnosed as: Inaperturate, psilate fungal spores, with two cells, uniseptate, exhibiting variable shapes. Sheffy & Dilcher (1971) emended the diagnosis as follows: Inaperturate fungal spores or algal bodies with psilate to scabrate sculpture. Norris (1986) also emended the diagnosis to characterize dicellate, inaperturate, isopolar, equilateral fungal spores. Spore wall levigate to scabrate.
Kalgutkar & Jansonius (2000) stated that dicellate aporate spores may be isopolar with equilaterally exactly similar cells, but many are not even on the same mycelium. For example, in D. paradoxus P. Ke & Z.Y. Shi 1978, D. inaequabilis Mart.-Hern. & Tom. -Ort. (1989), D. keralensis P. Kumar (1990), the spores are aporate and dicellate with unequal cells.
Type species: Dicellaesporites popovii Elsik.
Figure 1 – Dicellaesporites popovii. Scale bar = 10 μm. Redrawn from Elsik (1968).
References
Entry by
Ramesh K. Saxena, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India
(Edited by Kevin D. Hyde, Samaneh Chaharmiri-Dokhaharani, & Achala R. Rathnayaka)