Fungal taxa from the Miocene sediments of Mizoram, northeast India

The fungal elements comprising 33 dispersed genera and 35 species were recovered from an exposure near the Tlangsam village on the Indo-Myanmar border from the Dulte Formation (Miocene), near Champhai, eastern Mizoram, India. The fungal spores are most common and represented by 20 genera and 20 species comprising the amerospores, didymospores, phragmospores, dictyospores, scolecospores, helicospores and staurospores. The microthyriaceous ascostromata. contribute 4 genera and 4 species and those of the hemisphaerials 2 genera and 2 species to the assemblage: the remaining 7 genera and 9 species belong to the other fungal entities. The assemblage has 14 new genera and 19 new species. Endomycorrhizal, aquatic fungi and other hyphomycetes are frequently found. Most of the fungal elements indicate a warm, humid, tropical subtropical climate during the time of deposition, though a few have temperate affiliation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.