Earliest Mushroom Fossils Found in China

By KM Diaz, | March 19, 2017

The mushroom fossils have stalk with a complete cap, well-defined gills that are often seen in some mushrooms, and about two to three millimeters long.

Scientists have found four species of mushroom fossils in China and believed they are about 99 million years old.



The earliest mushroom fossils were discovered by the Paleontologists from New Zealand, China, and United States. They are well-preserved in Burmese amber and are the first ever complete mushroom fossils ever found. The mushroom fossils also have stalk with a complete cap, well-defined gills that are often seen in some mushrooms, and about two to three millimeters long.




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The researchers uncovered these mushroom fossils after locating almost 2,000 pieces of Burmese amber that were obtained for 10 years, according to the lead author of the study, Professor Huang Diying from Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology.



In addition, the research team also observed three of a kind rove beetle in these 125 million years old Burmese ambers that feed on mushrooms. The discovery of these early fossils highlights the paleo-diversity of mushrooms to go back to the time of the existence of agaric mushrooms 25 million years ago. Mushrooms were morphology diverse fungi, their bodies were also transient and soft which were regarded as very unusual fossils.



In a previous discovery, there are only five mushroom species known as exclusively from ambers. Of these five recent mushroom species, one was seen in a piece of damaged Burmese ambers over 99 million years ago. The other one was found in New Jersey amber that lived about 90 million years ago, and remaining three mushroom species found in the Dominican Republic amber and believed it existed 20 million years ago.

