Resumen

MARCO BROWN, Olymar L.. Los hongos fósiles o la paleomicología. INCI [online]. 2004, vol.29, n.2, pp.94-98. ISSN 0378-1844.

A specialty within paleontology, paleobotany studies fossil remains of vegetal origin, while paleomycology studies those of fungi. This paper reviews the current status of knowledge in paleomycology and presents in orderly fashion the fungal fossil records reported to date. Such records consist of structures of an individual or of a stage in its life cycle; most of them are palinomorph spores that, being built of chitin and sporolein, have retained their morphology through time. Chlamydospores belonging to fungi of the Endogonale order have been the best kept and most studied palinomorphs, providing significant support to the fields of evolution and ecology. Morphotypes belonging to the Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota and Basidiomycota phyla have also been reported. However, the contributions are of little importance with regard to stratigraphy. For the study of palinomorphs in general, techniques are applied whose aim is basically to eliminate carbonates and silicates, and to extract and concentrate the organic matter containing the palinomorphs, which are later identified within a given morpho-species. To this end, artificial taxonomic keys based on conspicuous characteristics of the studied funfgal palinomorphs have been elaborated.

Palabras clave : Hongos Fósiles; Paleomicología; Paleobotánica; Palinomorfo Fúngico.