The oldest fossil myxogastroid slime mould.
A piece of Baltic amber (Tertiary, Eocene) contains a sporocarp of a slime mould which is assigned to the recent genus Arcyria and described as A. sulcata sp. nov. Apart from a fossil stemonitoid myxomycete, there are no further unambiguous fossil records of slime moulds and therefore the fossil gives new insights into the evolutionary history of the Myxomycetes.
Institut für Okologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Dornburger Strasse 159, D-07743 Jena, Germany. heinrich.doerfelt@uni-jena.de
Heinrich
H
Dörfelt
Alexander R
AR
Schmidt
Peter
P
Ullmann
Jörg
J
Wunderlich
D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils; D009235:Myxomycetes / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000302:isolation & purification