Geological Society of America

166 D25. Recent Developments in Paleoecology (Posters)

Tuesday, 17 October 2023
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Hall B

USING FOSSIL FUNGI AS PALEOECOLOGICAL AND PALEOCLIMATE PROXIES: WHY AND HOW?

Paper number: 166-22
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Margaret Alden Presenting Author
Department of Engineering Sciences, Morehead, KY
Julia Fitzpatrick
Department of Biology and Chemistry, Morehead, KY
Laikin Tarlton
Department of Biology and Chemistry, Morehead, KY
Noelia Nuñez Otaño
Laboratorio de Geología de Llanuras, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Diamante, MS
Matthew J. Pound
Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne
Jen O'Keefe
Morehead State University, Morehead, KY

Abstract

Fungi are key providers of ecosystem services; fungal assemblages on land can be biome specific and vary with climate. Using fossil fungal assemblages to interpret paleoecology has, to date, relied primarily upon association with other taxa of known affinity, such as plant palynomorphs, because so few fossil taxa were correlated with extant taxa. Advances in fungal literature accessibility, fungal database development, and the NPP ID site have made it possible to correlate fossil fungal form types with extant taxa, thus permitting identification of extant families and genera in deep time that had previously only been suggested by calibrated molecular phylogenies. Recent work by the Fungi in a Warmer World team has demonstrated that with this information, the nearest living relative method for paleoclimate and paleoecological interpretation can be applied to fungal assemblages. Here we present our workflow for going from fossil fungal assemblages to ecological associations and paleoclimate interpretations.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-395040

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