@ARTICLE{TreeBASE2Ref17716, author = {G. H. Sung and G. O. P. Jr and Joseph W. Spatafora}, title = {The oldest fossil evidence of animal parasitism by fungi supports a Cretaceous radiation of fungal-arthropod symbioses}, year = {2008}, keywords = {}, doi = {}, url = {}, pmid = {}, journal = {Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution}, volume = {}, number = {}, pages = {}, abstract = {Paleohymenostilbe coccophagus, a fungal parasite of a scale insect from the Early Cretaceous (Upper Albian: 97-105 Mya), is reported and described here. This fossil not only provides the oldest fossil evidence of animal parasitism by fungi but also contains morphological features similar to species of the extant asexual genus Hymenostilbe (Family Ophiocordycipitaceae, Order Hypocreales, Kingdom Fungi). Because species of Hypocreales collectively exhibit a broad range of nutritional modes and symbioses involving plants, animals and other fungi, we conducted ancestral host reconstruction coupled with phylogenetic dating analyses calibrated with P. coccophagus. These results support a plant-based ancestral nutritional mode for Hypocreales, which then diversified ecologically through a dynamic process of intra- and interkingdom host shifts involving fungal, higher plant and animal hosts. This is especially evident in the families Cordycipitaceae, Clavicipitaceae and Ophiocordycipitaceae, which are characterized by a high occurrence of insect pathogens. The ancestral ecologies of Clavicipitaceae and Ophiocordycipitaceae are inferred to be animal pathogens, a trait inherited from a common ancestor, whereas the ancestral host affiliation of Cordycipitaceae was resolved as either animal or fungi. Phylogenetic dating supports both a Jurassic origin of fungal-animal symbioses within Hypocreales and diversification of all three insect pathogenic families during the Cretaceous, concurrent with the diversification of insects and angiosperms.} }

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