The Coniocybaceae are the sole

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

of lichen-forming

fungi A fungus (plural, : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of Eukaryote, eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and Mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified ...

in the Coniocybales, which itself is the only

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

in the class Coniocybomycetes. The family 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 po ...

Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist and ornithologist. It was he who first requested Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate models for scientific education and museum ...

in 1837. Both the order and the class were proposed by Maria Prieto and Mats Wedin in 2013 after

molecular phylogenetics 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 various

calicioid lichen Lichens are composite organisms made up of multiple species: a fungal partner, one or more photosynthetic partners, and sometimes a basidiomycete yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their ...

s showed that the Coniocybaceae represented an early diverging

lineage Lineage may refer to: Science * Lineage (anthropology), a group that can demonstrate its common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of descent from an ancestor * Lineage (evolution), a temporal sequence of individuals, populatio ...

in the inoperculate

ascomycete Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The d ...

Genera

*''

Chaenotheca ''Chaenotheca'' is a genus of lichenized fungi within the family Coniocybaceae. The sexual reproduction structures are a mass of loose ascospores that are enclosed by a cup shaped exciple sitting on top of a tiny stalk, having the appearance of ...

'' – 28 spp. *''

Coniocybe ''Coniocybe'' is a genus of fungi belonging to the family Coniocybaceae The Coniocybaceae are the sole family of lichen-forming fungi in the Coniocybales, which itself is the only order in the class Coniocybomycetes. The family was circumscr ...

'' – 4 spp. *''

Sclerophora ''Sclerophora'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Coniocybaceae. Largely restricted to temperate latitudes, three of its six known species have been reported in North America. Species *''Sclerophora amabilis'' *''Sclerophora far ...

'' – 4 spp.

References

Ascomycota Ascomycota families Lichen families Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach Taxa described in 1837 {{Ascomycota-stub