A tiny parasite of unicellular microorganisms from the Lower Devonian Rhynie and Windyfield cherts, Scotland

Krings, Michael; Kerp, Hans

doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.104106

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Krings & Harper (2019) suggest that a special micro-environmental setting was imperative for the fragile, unistratose colonies of R. uniformis to become preserved intact and that the substrate appears to have served as a preservation trap by shielding organisms enclosed in small inclusions between substrate layers from destructive mechanical forces and taphonomic alteration. Krings & Kerp (2019) demonstrate that part of the clear chert inclusions were once land plant axes based on shape and because they are surrounded by cuticles, and hypothesised that microbial life thriving on substrate surfaces and prostrate plant axes regularly became buried by new sediment layers. Within the consolidating sediment, the plant axes decayed and eventually turned into voids, in places still bounded by cuticles and containing remnants of the interior tissues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entophysalis in the Rhynie chert (Lower Devonian, Scotland): implications for cyanobacterial evolution

McMahon,

Loron,

Cooper

et al. 2023

Geol. Mag.

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The ∼407-myr-old Rhynie chert of Scotland contains exquisite body fossils of land plants, animals and microorganisms, which provide our earliest reasonably complete snapshot of a Phanerozoic terrestrial ecosystem. These fossils have been instrumental to our understanding of the ‘greening of the land’, a major transition in the history of the Earth–life system. Among the primary producers preserved in the chert are cyanobacteria, of which only a fraction have been formally described. Here, we report the occurrence of the colony-forming cyanobacterium Eoentophysalis in the Rhynie chert. To our knowledge, this represents the first bona fide record of Entophysalidaceae from any post-Cambrian fossil assemblage or any non-marine fossil assemblage of any age. The Rhynie Eoentophysalis appears remarkably similar in appearance both to modern marine and freshwater Entophysalis ssp. and to Eoentophysalis belcherensis, a shallow-marine fossil from the ∼2 Ga Belcher Group of Canada that is perhaps the oldest convincing cyanobacterium on record. Darkened cell envelopes in the Rhynie Eoentophysalis correspond well with both E. belcherensis and modern Entophysalis, whose cell envelopes often contain the photoprotective brown pigment scytonemin. The occurrence of Eoentophysalis in the Rhynie chert supports previous claims that the fossilisable traits of entophysalid cyanobacteria are evolutionarily static through geological time. These organisms may be such effective generalists that major changes in their environment – in this case, the transition to a fully non-marine habitat – have not imposed significant selection pressure on these traits.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entophysalis in the Rhynie chert (Lower Devonian, Scotland): implications for cyanobacterial evolution

McMahon,

Loron,

Cooper

et al. 2023

Geol. Mag.

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“…The oldest fossils of chytrids and chytrid-like organisms preserved within the context of the environment in which they lived (often even in situ) come from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert, and they include a variety of holocarpic and eucarpic forms, such as saprotrophs and parasites of land plants, charophytes, microscopic algae, and other fungi (Kidston and Lang 1921;Harvey et al 1969;Illman 1984;Taylor et al 1992aTaylor et al , 1992bHass et al 1994;Krings et al 2007Krings et al , 2009bKrings et al , 2016Krings et al , 2017Krings and Taylor 2014;Strullu-Derrien et al 2016Krings and Harper 2018, 2019a, 2019b, 2020Harper and Krings 2019;Krings and Kerp 2019). Some of these fossils not only are morphologically very similar to modern chytrids but also enter into the same types of interactions with other organisms and even elicit the same host responses (e.g., Taylor et al 1992a;Krings and Harper 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rhizophydites matryoshkaegen. et sp. nov. (Fossil Chytridiomycota) on Spores of the Early Land PlantHorneophyton lignierifrom the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert

Krings

Serbet

Harper

2021

International Journal of Plant Sciences

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Premise of research. As our understanding of the importance of fungi in ecosystems today increases, we are still in the early stages of appreciating their roles in the past. The famous Early Devonian Rhynie chert contains a remarkable diversity of fungal fossils and copious evidence of fungal interactions; however, only relatively few of them have been described.Methodology. Thin sections of the chert were studied at high magnification in transmitted light. Images of fossils were captured digitally and processed in Adobe Photoshop.Pivotal results. A distinct eucarpic, monocentric chytrid (Chytridiomycota), Rhizophydites matryoshkae gen. et sp. nov., occurs on partially degraded in situ spores of the early land plant Horneophyton lignieri. Zoosporangia are epibiotic, usually spheroidal and less than 30 mm in diameter, and inoperculate, and they possess one to four discharge papillae or short tubes. Small bodies present within and outside many of the zoosporangia are suggestive of encysted zoospores and germinating zoospore cysts. Several specimens comprise two or more successive generations of zoosporangia occurring one inside another, a feature that allows for a direct comparison of the fossils with modern Rhizophydium (Rhizophydiales).Conclusions. The discovery of R. matryoshkae interacting with the spores of H. lignieri expands our knowledge of the biological relationships that define complexity in early continental ecosystems and provides a new calibration point that can be used to align molecular clock estimates with fossil evidence in the discussion of chytrid evolution.

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“…One possible explanation is that a special micro-environmental setting was imperative for the filaments to become preserved intact. Research on fragile microorganisms, including cyanobacteria, exquisitely preserved elsewhere has provided evidence to suggest that certain micro-environmental settings (e.g., amber, walls of leech cocoons, interiors of hollow plant axes, small voids in the substrate, or microbial mat frameworks) had a cushioning effect on destructive mechanical forces, and hence were effective as microscopic conservation traps for delicate microbial life (Dörfelt, Schmidt & Wunderlich, 2000;Bomfleur et al, 2012;Bomfleur et al, 2015;McLoughlin et al, 2016;Krings et al, 2018;Krings & Harper, 2019;Krings & Kerp, 2019). It is highly probable that special circumstances also were in play during the fossilization of the cyanobacteria from Fremouw Peak.…”

Section: Cyanobacteria In Triassic Permineralized Peatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Filamentous cyanobacteria preserved in masses of fungal hyphae from the Triassic of Antarctica

Harper

Taylor

Krings

2020

PeerJ

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Permineralized peat from the central Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica has provided a wealth of information on plant and fungal diversity in Middle Triassic high-latitude forest paleoecosystems; however, there are no reports as yet of algae or cyanobacteria. The first record of a fossil filamentous cyanobacterium in this peat consists of wide, uniseriate trichomes composed of discoid cells up to 25 µm wide, and enveloped in a distinct sheath. Filament morphology, structurally preserved by permineralization and mineral replacement, corresponds to the fossil genus Palaeo-lyngbya, a predominantly Precambrian equivalent of the extant Lyngbya sensu lato (Oscillatoriaceae, Oscillatoriales). Specimens occur exclusively in masses of interwoven hyphae produced by the fungus Endochaetophora antarctica, suggesting that a special micro-environmental setting was required to preserve the filaments. Whether some form of symbiotic relationship existed between the fungus and cyanobacterium remains unknown.

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A tiny parasite of unicellular microorganisms from the Lower Devonian Rhynie and Windyfield cherts, Scotland

Cited by 11 publications

References 75 publications

Entophysalis in the Rhynie chert (Lower Devonian, Scotland): implications for cyanobacterial evolution

Entophysalis in the Rhynie chert (Lower Devonian, Scotland): implications for cyanobacterial evolution

Rhizophydites matryoshkaegen. et sp. nov. (Fossil Chytridiomycota) on Spores of the Early Land PlantHorneophyton lignierifrom the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert

Filamentous cyanobacteria preserved in masses of fungal hyphae from the Triassic of Antarctica

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