Summary
Examples of fossil ascomycetes are described from throughout the geologic record with the oldest forms coming from rocks of Silurian age. During the Carboniferous there were several forms that morphologically resemble modern plectomycetes. Epiphyllous fungi are probably an ancient group that radiated extensively during the Tertiary. Both the fossil record and molecular sequence data suggest that the ascomycetes are older than previously thought.
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Taylor, T.N. (1994). The Fossil History of Ascomycetes. In: Hawksworth, D.L. (eds) Ascomycete Systematics. NATO ASI Series, vol 269. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9290-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9290-4_14
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