ABSTRACT
Fungi were an important component of ancient ecosystems where they functioned as decomposers of lignin and cellulose much as they do today. While few would challenge this assumption, our understanding of the complexity of fungal interactions in ancient ecosystems has been greatly hampered by an inability to sufficiently document fungi in time and space (Taylor and Taylor, 1997). Both fossil specimens (Taylor, 1993) and divergence times based on molecular sequence data (e.g., Bruns eta!., 1991) suggest that many fungal groups have a long geological history. As a result of current molecular techniques it is hypothesized that the origin of eukaryotic kingdoms, including the fungi, took place about 1 billion years ago, and that terrestrial fungi diverged from their chytrid ancestors during the Cambrian (approximately 550 million years ago) (Berbee and Taylor, 1993). Despite the fact that well-preserved cyanobacteria are known from many Proterozoic deposits, no fungal remains have been recovered from rocks of this age.
