''Coprinites'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of gilled

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

in the

Agaricales The Agaricales are an order (biology), order of fungi in the division (mycology), division Basidiomycota. As originally conceived, the order contained all the agarics (gilled mushrooms), but subsequent research has shown that not all agarics are ...

family

Agaricaceae The Agaricaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi and include the genus ''Agaricus'', as well as basidiomycetes previously classified in the families Tulostomataceae, Lepiotaceae, and Lycoperdaceae. Taxonomy The family Agaricaceae was publishe ...

. At present it contains the single

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

''Coprinites dominicana''. The genus is solely known from the early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

Burdigalian The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age (geology), age or stage (stratigraphy), stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 annum, Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). Preceded by the Aquitanian (sta ...

stage,

Dominican amber Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from resin of the extinct tree '' Hymenaea protera''. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil in ...

deposits on the island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

. ''Coprinites'' is one of only four known agarics fungus species known in the fossil record and the first of three to be described from Dominican amber.

History and classification

The genus is known only from the single

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

"''AF-9-11''", a single fruiting body,

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

, specimen currently residing in the Poinar collections maintained by the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. The specimen was collected from the La Toca amber mine, northeast of

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros ("James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights"), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the capital of ...

, in the

Cordillera Septentrional The Cordillera Septentrional is a mountain range that runs parallel to the north coast of the Dominican Republic, with extensions to the northwest as Tortuga island in Haiti, and to the southeast through lowlands to where it rises as the Sierra d ...

area of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. It was first studied by Dr. George Poinar of the UC, Berkeley and Dr. Rolf Singer from the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Poinar and Singer published their 1990

type description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

in the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

''. The generic epithet ''Coprinites'' is in reference to the genus similarity to the modern genus ''

Coprinus ''Coprinus'' is a small genus of mushroom-forming fungi consisting of '' Coprinus comatus''the shaggy ink cap (British) or shaggy mane ( American)and several of its close relatives. Until 2001, ''Coprinus'' was a large genus consisting of all a ...

''. The specific epithet "''dominicana''" was coined by the authors in reference to the Dominican Republic where the fossil was recovered. When initially published ''Coprinites dominicana'' was the first species of agaric fungus to be described. Two more species '' Protomycena electra'' and '' Aureofungus yaniguaensis'' have since been described from fossils found in the amber mines of the Dominican Republic, while the fourth species '' Archaeomarasmius leggeti'' is from older

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

age

New Jersey Amber New Jersey Amber, sometimes called Raritan amber, is amber found in the Raritan Formation, Raritan and Magothy Formations of the Mid-Atlantic states, Central Atlantic (Eastern) coast of the United States. It is dated to the Late Cretaceous, Turoni ...

. With the 2007 publication of a fifth extinct agaric species, '' Palaeoagaracites antiquus'' the age for the order was pushed back to the

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

(approximately 100 Ma).

Description

The holotype of ''Coprinites'' is a lone fruiting body without any associated structures and a partly disarticulated stipe preserved in a piece of clear yellow amber approximately and weight . The pileus is in diameter and has a convex shape sporting a small central depression. The brownish-pink flesh is thin with a scaly-pectinate surface. The margin is striated and slightly flared. ''Coprinites'' sports fifteen nondeccurent

lamellae Lamella (: lamellae) means a small plate or flake in Latin, and in English may refer to: Biology * Lamella (mycology), a papery rib beneath a mushroom cap * Lamella (botany) * Lamella (surface anatomy), a plate-like structure in an animal * Lame ...

, or gills, which reach the outer pileus and thirteen lamellulae, short gills which do not reach the edge, of varying lengths. The pileus is centered on the stipe, which is in diameter and incomplete, with part of the stipe base preserved in the amber next to the pileus. The light brown basidiospores, present on the

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in oth ...

associated with the fruiting body, are smooth and ellipsoidal to oblong. Each basidiospore is approximately 6 to 7

μm The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...

long and appear to possess a germ pore. ''Coprinites'' was originally placed in the family

Coprinaceae The Psathyrellaceae are a family of dark-spored agarics that generally have rather soft, fragile fruiting bodies, and are characterized by black, dark brown, rarely reddish, or even pastel-colored spore prints. About 50% of species produce fruit ...

based on the visible structures, or macromorphology of the fruiting body and the microscopic features preserved in the amber specimen. The combination of characters present did not match any modern genus of the mushroom order

leading Poinar and Singer to erect the genus ''Coprinites''. The lack of autodeliquescence along with the mushrooms morphology lead David Hibbett, Michael Donoghue and David Grimaldi to question the placement of ''Coprinites''. They noted the characters of the genus are similar to those of genus ''

Leucocoprinus ''Leucocoprinus'' is a genus of fungi in the family Agaricaceae. Its best-known member is the distinctive yellow mushroom ''Leucocoprinus birnbaumii'', which is found in plant pots and greenhouses worldwide. The type species is ''Leucocoprinus ce ...

'' mushrooms. They suggested that ''Coprinites'' could be treated as either a member of Coprinaceae or

, to which ''Leucocoprinus'' belongs. With a number of molecular studies a large portion of the genera formerly placed in Coprinaceae, including ''Coprinus'', have been moved into Agaricaceae. Thus supporting the suggestion of Hibbet, Donoghue, and Grimaldi.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5168923 †Protomycena †Protomycena Prehistoric fungi Natural history of Hispaniola Fossil taxa described in 1997 Miocene life Natural history of the Dominican Republic Neogene fungi Taxa named by Rolf Singer Taxa named by George Poinar Jr.