AN ARCHAIC SLIME MOULD IN BALTIC AMBER |
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| Authors: | HEINRICH DÖ RFELT, ALEXANDER R. SCHMIDT&dagger |
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| Affiliation: | Martin-Luther-Universität Halle, Institut für Geobotanik und Botanischer Garten, Neuwerk 21, D-06108 Halle/Saale, Germany;e-mail:; Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Paläontologie, Invalidenstr. 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany;e-mail: |
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| Abstract: | Abstract: Several sporocarps of a slime mould are preserved on a plant fragment in a piece of Baltic amber (Tertiary, Eocene). The fossil is assigned to the extant genus Protophysarum (Myxomycota sensu stricto , Physarales) and described as P. balticum sp. nov. It is the third record of fossil sporocarps of a slime mould and the second record of the subclass Myxogasteromycetidae. All three records of fossil sporocarps are inclusions in Baltic amber. The find provides new insights regarding the occurrence and phylogeny of myxomycetes in the Palaeogene. |
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| Keywords: | Myxomycetes Physarales Protophysarum balticum fossil fungi palaeomycology Tertiary amber |
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