The Mycocaliciaceae are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of seven

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

and about 90 species of

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 order

Mycocaliciales The ''Mycocaliciales'' are an order (biology), order of ascomycetous fungi within the subclass Mycocaliciomycetidae and within the class Eurotiomycetes (subphylum Pezizomycotina). References

Eurotiomycetes Ascomycota orders Taxa describe ...

Taxonomy

Calicioid fungi are a heterogeneous assemblage of fungi sharing the presence of a mazaedium, a structure in which loose masses of

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 accumulate and which then are passively disseminated. Before 1970, the presence of a mazaedium was considered to be the defining trait of the order Caliciales, historically considered to be a

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 ...

group. Mycocaliciaceae was

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

in 1970 by lichenologist Alexander Schmidt. He showed that some of the genera that had been traditionally classified in the Caliciales had active spore dispersal rather than a mazaedium. He resurrected ''Chaenothecopsis'', ''Mycocalicium'' and ''Strongyleuma'', accepted ''Stenocybe'' and described the new genus ''Phaeocalicium''. The Mycocaliciaceae and the Sphinctrinaceae are the families in the order

Eurotiomycetes Ascomycota orders Taxa describe ...

, which was created in 2000 by

Leif Tibell Leif Tibell (born 16 November 1944) is a Swedish lichenologist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Uppsala. He is known for his expertise on calicioid lichens. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 2012 for lifetime achievements in lich ...

and Mats Weden. Mycocaliciaceae was shown in several studies to belong to the class

Eurotiomycetes Eurotiomycetes is a large class of ascomycetes with cleistothecial ascocarps within the subphylum Pezizomycotina, currently containing around 3810 species according to the Catalogue of Life. It is the third largest lichen A lichen ( , ) is ...

. In 2005,

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analysis of

internal transcribed spacer Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) is the spacer DNA situated between the small-subunit ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and large-subunit rRNA genes in the chromosome or the corresponding transcribed region in the polycistronic rRNA precursor transcript. I ...

DNA sequences suggested that the Sphinctrinaceae nested in the Mycocaliciaceae, and further, that some of the morphological features traditionally used to classify Mycocaliciales genera were found to be

homoplasious Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

. A recent (2020) source places the Sphinctrinaceae in

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

with the Mycocaliciaceae.

Description

The

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...

of Mycocaliciaceae species are immersed in the substrate, and often absent.

Ascomata An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...

are stalked, brown or black, and topped by a head that is disc-like to somewhat spherical. Interascal tissue is absent in the

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in others some ...

. The asci are small, cylindrical, thick-walled at least in the apex, and not evanescent at an early stage.

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 are

ellipsoidal An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the z ...

to cylindrical in shape, pale to mid brown in colour, with walls that are smooth and thin. The ascospores are not released in a mazaedial mass.

Genera

This is a list of the genera in the Mycocaliciaceae; this includes taxa formerly classified in the Sphinctrinaceae. Following the genus name is the

taxonomic authority In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

, year of publication, and the number of species: *'' Brunneocarpos'' (2016) – 1 sp. *'' Chaenothecopsis'' (1927) – ca. 40 spp. *'' Mycocalicium'' (1890) – 12 spp. *'' Phaeocalicium'' (1970) – 11 spp. *'' Pyrgidium'' (1867) – 3 spp. *'' Sphinctrina'' (1825) – ca. 9 spp. *'' Stenocybe'' (1855) – 14 spp.

Fossil record

The first

fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

of a member of the Mycocaliciaceae was reported in 2000. The species, '' Chaenothecopsis bitterfeldensis'', was described and illustrated from

Bitterfeld amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...

dating back to at least 20 million years ago. The similarity in

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

to some extant East Asian species suggests that the genus had an ancient

Laurasian Laurasia () was the more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around ( Mya), the other being Gondwana. It separated from Gondwana (beginning in the late Triassic period) during the breakup of Pan ...

distribution. Since then, several new calicioid fossil specimens have been discovered from

Baltic amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than 1 ...

(50–35 million years ago). For example, in 2020, nine new fossils were reported. Of all reported calicioid fossils, six are assigned to '' Chaenothecopsis'' and one to '' Phaeocalicium''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6947116 Eurotiomycetes Ascomycota families Taxa described in 1970