Pandea, a new replacement name for Udaria D.K. Singh, S. Majumdar & D. Singh (Marchantiophyta, Lophocoleaceae)

The generic name Udaria Gupta (1996:103) was established by Gupta (1996) with two fossil fungi species Udaria singhii Gupta (1996:103) and U. saxenae Gupta (1996:104) from Lower Tertiary sediments of Himachal Pradesh, India. Later on, Singh et al. (2018) described the new genus of liverworts, Udaria Singh, Majumdar & Singh (2018: 1537) with the single species Udaria lamellicaulis Singh, Majumdar & Singh (2018: 1537) to the family Lophocoleaceae Vanden Berghen (1956: 208) from Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim in Eastern Himalaya, India. After a thorough scrutiny of literature and type specimens, it was found that the liverwort genus name, Udaria Singh, Majumdar & Singh (2018: 1537) is illegitimate as it is a later homonym of the fossil fungi genus Udaria Gupta (1996:103). Therefore, a new replacement name Pandea U. B. Deshmukh is proposed with a new combination for the type species here in accordance with article 53.1 of Shenzhen Code (Turland et al. 2018).

Earth's earliest and deepest purported fossils may be iron-mineralized chemical gardens

Recognizing fossil microorganisms is essential to the study of life's origin and evolution and to the ongoing search for life on Mars. Purported fossil microbes in ancient rocks include common assemblages of iron-mineral filaments and tubes. Recently, such assemblages have been interpreted to represent Earth's oldest body fossils, Earth's oldest fossil fungi, and Earth's best analogues for fossils that might form in the basaltic Martian subsurface. Many of these putative fossils exhibit hollow circular cross-sections, lifelike (non-crystallographic, constant-thickness, and bifurcate) branching, anastomosis, nestedness within ‘sheaths’, and other features interpreted as strong evidence for a biological origin, since no abiotic process consistent with the composition of the filaments has been shown to produce these specific lifelike features either in nature or in the laboratory. Here, I show experimentally that abiotic chemical gardening can mimic such purported fossils in both morphology and composition. In particular, chemical gardens meet morphological criteria previously proposed to establish biogenicity, while also producing the precursors to the iron minerals most commonly constitutive of filaments in the rock record. Chemical gardening is likely to occur in nature. Such microstructures should therefore not be assumed to represent fossil microbes without independent corroborating evidence.

Fossilized Microbial Forms in Baltic and Goan Amber-A Comparative Pioneer Study

This paper is based on surveys, exploration and standardization of techniques to recover rare amber samples from sands in Goa and identify specimens embedded with distinct microbial fossils based on studies on reference samples of imported Baltic amber. We developed techniques to locate, detect and identify amber samples in local sand. In this pioneer study, we report presumptive microbial forms such as actinobacteria and fungi in amber samples of Goa throwing light on microbial paleobiodiversity. Baltic amber (Succinate) is fossilized resin belonging to the Eocene period (44-49 million years old) derived from the Araucariaceae and Leguminoseae families of trees containing up to 8% of Succinic acid and compounds such as terpenoids and phenolic derivatives. Sooty moulds in the amber fossils have been studied (Schmidt et al., 2014). Samples of imported Baltic amber were validated, studied and used as reference for identification and characterization of amber found in sand of Goa. FTIR Spectroscopic tests diagnostic of presence of Succinate proved that both samples meet the criteria as plant derived Succinate containing products. Fossil fungi in Baltic amber were observed, and compared with similar forms in rare amber fragments of Goa. These samples were subjected to microscopic examination. Actinobacterial and fungal forms embedded in local amber were compared with similar forms found in imported Baltic amber and those published in literature. Detection of fossilized actinobacterial and fungal forms has shown us the potential for further studies for comprehensive collection and microscopic examination of such paleomicrobial forms in rare local amber samples.

Fossil Fungi from Miocene Sedimentary Rocks of the Central and Coastal Amazon Region, North Brazil

Samples from outcrops of the Miocene Solimões and Barreiras formations from the central and coastal Amazon regions of Brazil were analyzed palynologically. Assemblages of fossil fungi were identified, and are described herein, and their relevance to paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic studies in tropical regions discussed. The fungal assemblage comprises four spore groups, 19 species belonging to 12 genera. Additionally, two new species are proposed. The samples from the Solimões Formation contain the following taxa: Mediaverrunites elsikii, Mediaverrunites mulleri, Monoporisporites sp., Fusiformisporites crabbii, and Multicellites cingulatus. The presence of these suggests river channel margins colonized by freshwater vegetation, where seasonal fluctuations of water table and rainfall produce wetter substrates. The samples from the Barreiras Formation showed higher species and generic diversity than those from the Solimões Formation with Hypoxylonites minutus, Hypoxylonsporites ater, Hypoxylonites sp., the new species Inapertisporites multiporus n. sp., Pluricellaesporites regularis, Lacrimasporonites levis, Monoporisporites annulatus, Spirotremesporites simplex, Dyadosporites novus, Dyadosporites sp., and Multicellaesporites attenuates. All of these correspond to parasitic fungi from a range of from tropical wetlands. Spegazzinites sp. and Dicellaesporites aculeolatus, good indicators of marine influence and mangrove presence, were also identified in the samples from the Barreiras Formation. Furthermore, the fungal spore taxa Inapertisporites multiporus, Mediaverrunites elsikii, Mediaverrunites mulleri, Pluricellaesporites regularis, and Spirotremesporites simplex serve as stratigraphic indicators when combined with miospore index taxa such as Crassoretitriletes vanraadshooveni, Grimsdalea magnaclavata and Fenestrites longispinosus indicating a Miocene age for these sediments in the Amazon region.