The Coniochaetales are an

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

within the class

Sordariomycetes Sordariomycetes is a class of fungi in the subdivision Pezizomycotina (Ascomycota), consisting of 28 orders, 90 families, 1344 genera. Sordariomycetes is from the Latin sordes (filth) because some species grow in animal feces, though growth habit ...

. This order is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

and contains a single family, the Coniochaetaceae, historically placed in the order

Sordariales The order Sordariales is one of the most diverse taxonomic groups within the Sordariomycetes (subdivision Pezizomycotina, division Ascomycota). Species in the order Sordariales have a broad range of ecological diversity, containing lignicolous, ...

. However, this

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

placement has been challenged by other authorities, and the Coniochaetales was proposed to include the family Coniochaetaceae. Species in this family are characterized by having germ-slits in the

ascospore An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or s ...

s, a morphological feature that distinguishes them from species in the

Sordariaceae The Sordariaceae are a family of perithecial fungi within the Sordariales order. The family includes the important model organism ''Neurospora crassa'' that is used in genetic research. Members of the family include the red bread molds in the ...

. Phylogenetic research in 2006 revealed that four genera in the family Coniochaetaceae, ''Coniochaeta'', ''Coniochaetidium'', ''Ephemeroascus'', and ''Poroconiochaeta'', were not

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

, and were all made synonymous with '' Coniochaeta''.

References

Ascomycota orders {{Sordariomycetes-stub