''Sporormiella'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 ...

in the family

Sporormiaceae The Sporormiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Pleosporales. Taxa have a cosmopolitan distribution and are saprobic on dung ( coprophilous) and rotting vegetation. Description The Sporormiaceae are characterized by having dark brown, septa ...

. Species of the genus are obligately coprophilous, occurring on the dung of domestic livestock as well as wild herbivores. The genus is distributed across boreal and

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

regions of the world, and contains about 80 species. The spores have characteristic features–they are dark brown, septate and have a pronounced sigmoid germination pore, which enables their use in

paleoecology Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescales. As a discipline, paleoecology interacts with, depends on and informs ...

as a

proxy Proxy may refer to: * Proxy or agent (law), a substitute authorized to act for another entity or a document which authorizes the agent so to act * Proxy (climate), a measured variable used to infer the value of a variable of interest in climate ...

or indicator for the abundance of grazing mammals.

References

Pleosporales Coprophagous organisms Dothideomycetes genera {{Pleosporales stub