Blue stain fungi infecting an 84‐million‐year‐old conifer from South Africa.

Bark beetles, fossil wood, Upper Cretaceous, wood-colonizing fungi, Araucariaceae, Ascomycota Here we describe a fungus colonizing wood of the extinct conifer I Agathoxylon i Hartig from the Upper Cretaceous Mzamba Formation of Pondoland (South Africa), and we draw comparisons with a blue stain fungus colonizing the wood of extant I Pinus strobus i . Keywords: Araucariaceae; Ascomycota; bark beetles; fossil wood; Upper Cretaceous; wood-colonizing fungi EN Araucariaceae Ascomycota bark beetles fossil wood Upper Cretaceous wood-colonizing fungi 1032 1037 6 01/10/22 20220201 NES 220201 Introduction Fossil fungi are frequently observed in association with fossil plants in a geological record that dates back over 400 Myr to the beginning of the Devonian Period (e.g. Strullu-Derrien I et al i ., 2014, 2018; Taylor I et al i ., 2015; Krings I et al i ., 2018; Krings & Harper, 2019). In most modern trees, two types of wood can be recognized: sapwood is the outer, pale-coloured wood, and heartwood the inner, mostly darker wood (Githiomi & Dougal, 2012). [Extracted from the article]