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Early fungi from the Proterozoic era in Arctic Canada

An Author Correction to this article was published on 04 July 2019

This article has been updated

Abstract

Fungi are crucial components of modern ecosystems. They may have had an important role in the colonization of land by eukaryotes, and in the appearance and success of land plants and metazoans1,2,3. Nevertheless, fossils that can unambiguously be identified as fungi are absent from the fossil record until the middle of the Palaeozoic era4,5. Here we show, using morphological, ultrastructural and spectroscopic analyses, that multicellular organic-walled microfossils preserved in shale of the Grassy Bay Formation (Shaler Supergroup, Arctic Canada), which dates to approximately 1,010–890 million years ago, have a fungal affinity. These microfossils are more than half a billion years older than previously reported unambiguous occurrences of fungi, a date which is consistent with data from molecular clocks for the emergence of this clade6,7. In extending the fossil record of the fungi, this finding also pushes back the minimum date for the appearance of eukaryotic crown group Opisthokonta, which comprises metazoans, fungi and their protist relatives8,9.

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Fig. 1: Microphotographs of O. giraldae specimens.
Fig. 2: Spectra obtained with FTIR microspectroscopy.
Fig. 3: Simplified phylogenetic relationships of main eukaryotic supergroups.

Data availability

All processed data are included in Supplementary Tables 1 and 2. Raw data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Microfossil specimens are accessible at the Early Life Traces and Evolution–Astrobiology Laboratory.

Change history

  • 04 July 2019

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Agouron Institute, the FRS-FNRS-FWO EOS ET-Home grant 30442502 and the ERC Stg ELiTE FP7/308074. We thank M. Giraldo, M.-C. Sforna, Y. Cornet and S. Smeets (University of Liège) for technical support and the Geological Survey of Canada’s Geomapping for Energy and Minerals Program for fieldwork logistics.

Reviewer information

Nature thanks Linda Graham and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

C.C.L. and E.J.J. conceived the study and interpreted the data. C.F. and C.C.L performed the Raman and FTIR analyses. C.C.L., C.F. and S.B. performed the TEM and SEM sample preparation and observations. R.H.R. and E.C.T. sampled the rocks and collected the geological data. C.C.L. and E.J.J. wrote the paper with contribution from all the authors. E.J.J. supervised the project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Corentin C. Loron or Emmanuelle J. Javaux.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Location of the study area in northwestern Canada, highlighting the Brock Inlier.

The white cross indicates the location at which the samples were extracted (68° 55′ 42′′ N, 121° 44′ 17′′ W). The stratigraphic column and geology have previously been published14,15,16. The map is modified after a previous publication14.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Additional SEM images.

a, b, O. giraldae (whole specimen) with right-angled branching hyphae (indicated with arrows). dg, Detailed images of microfibrils on the surface of the specimen shown in Fig. 1h.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Additional spectra of O. giraldae, showing a more-advanced state of degradation.

The typical peaks of chitin and chitosan are present, but at a lower intensity than in the standard. The region of the saccharides (wavenumber of 1,200–800 cm−1), which is necessary for polymer recognition, is very weak in intensity. Each measurement was repeated three times with similar results.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains three tables: “Average values of characteristic Raman parameters”; “FTIR assignment of absoption bands”; and the data used for Fig. 3. Supplementary note includes a list of Precambrian microfossils previously interpreted as possible fungi; information on FTIR micro-spectroscopy and additional references.

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Loron, C.C., François, C., Rainbird, R.H. et al. Early fungi from the Proterozoic era in Arctic Canada. Nature 570, 232–235 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1217-0

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