Winfrenatia

Reconstruction of the transvere view of Winfrenatia.

Winfrenatia is the oldest known terrestrial lichen,[1] known from the lower Devonian Rhynie Chert.

It comprises a thallus, made of layered, aseptate hyphae, with a number of depressions on its top surface. Each depression contains a net of hyphae holding a sheathed cyanobacterium. The fungus appears to be related to the Zygomycetes, and the photobiont resembles the coccoid Gloeocapsa and Chroococcidiopsis.[2] There may be two separate algae, making the lichen a symbiosis of three organisms.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Karatygin, I. V.; Snigirevskaya, N. S.; Vikulin, S. V. (2009). "The most ancient terrestrial lichen Winfrenatia reticulata: A new find and new interpretation". Paleontological Journal 43: 107. doi:10.1134/S0031030109010110.
  2. ↑ Taylor, T. N.; Hass, H.; Kerp, H. (1 July 1997). "A Cyanolichen from the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert". American Journal of Botany 84 (7): 992. doi:10.2307/2446290. ISSN 0002-9122. PMID 21708654.


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