ABSTRACT
Evolution is an ongoing process, and speciation and extinction are its unavoidable by-products. The fungi are soft and fragile eukaryotes. Yet, they have left an array of remnants in the form of spores, hyphae and mycelia as impressions and compressions in carboniferous coal and charcoal as well as in mummified conifer wood. Along with bryophytes, lichens have played a key role in weathering of rocks and formation of the present landscape. Almost all taxonomic groups of fungi were already present during the Cambrian. However, their diversification had to wait until the arrival of flowering plants during the Cretaceous period between 160 and 125 or (MYA) million yr ago. Based on it, a tentative phylogenic tree is constructed for the first time. Further analysis indicates that the 14,714 speciose Leotiomycetes have passed through the highest diversity at order, family and genus levels.
