Home / Introductions to both Fossil and Recent Plant Taxa / Algae

! C. Beimforde et al. (2014): Estimating the Phanerozoic history of the Ascomycota lineages: combining fossil and molecular data. In PDF, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 78: 386-398. See also here.

University of California, Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), Berkeley:
! Lichens: Fossil Record.
! Lichens: Life History & Ecology.

! The Botanical Society of America: The American Journal of Botany Cover Images Index. The collection on the page holding the cover images of the American Journal of Botany. A great set of images! See also:
! Online Image Collection. This page acts as a map to the entire collection. Images are classified Lichens.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Salvatore De Santis, The New York Botanical Garden: An Introduction to Lichens.

Encyclopedia of Earth. An electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. Go to: What are lichens? About fungi, algae, an what lichens are not. More botany articles here, and there (all titles A-Z).

D.J. Galloway, Australian Biological Resources Study: Lichen Glossary.
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

C. Hartl et al. (2015): Lichen preservation in amber: morphology, ultrastructure, chemofossils, and taphonomic alteration. In PDF, Foss. Rec., 18: 127-135.

R. Honegger et al. (2013): The earliest records of internally stratified cyanobacterial and algal lichens from the Lower Devonian of the Welsh Borderland. In PDF, New Phytologist, 197: 264–275.

Steven L. Jessup, Southern Oregon University: Algae, Fungi and Lichens. A link list.
The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! LIAS light (by Botanische Staatssammlung München). A database for rapid identification of lichens.

Andrew Miller, Illinois Natural History Survey:
! Lichens. Powerpoint presentation.

! M.P. Nelsen et al. (2020): No support for the emergence of lichens prior to the evolution of vascular plants. In PDF, Gebiology, 18: 3-13. See also here.
! Note figure 2: Crown age estimates for LFF [lichenforming fungi] and putative origins of LFA [lichenforming algae].
"... As unambiguous fossil data are lacking to demonstrate the presence of lichens prior to vascular plants, we utilize an alternate approach to assess their historic presence in early terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we analyze new time-calibrated phylogenies of ascomycete fungi and chlorophytan algae
[...] Coupled with the absence of unambiguous fossil data, our work finds no support for lichens having mediated global change during the Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic prior to vascular plants..."

! Dept of Botany and Plant Pathology, and
Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University: Lichenland.

C. Puginier et al. (2021): Plant–microbe interactions that have impacted plant terrestrializations. Free access, Plant Physiology.
Note figure 1: 1 Phylogenetic tree of the Viridiplantae. showing the evolution of the AMS [arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis], the putative evolutions of lichens and clades that contain LFA [lichen forming algae] and terrestrial species.
Figure 3: Lichens and their tolerance against terrestrial-related constraints.

! Gordon Ramel, Earthlife.net: What is a Lichen?
See also Loveable Lichens.

W.B. Sanders (2023): Is lichen symbiont mutualism a myth? Open access, BioScience, 73: 623–634.
See likewise here (in PDF).
Note figure 3: Two symbioses on intertidal rocks compared with respect to the lichen concept.
Figure 4: Two symbioses involving fungi of the Verrucariaceae (Ascomycota) and green algae of the Prasiolaceae compared with respect to the lichen concept.

Peter v. Sengbusch, Botanik Online: Wechselwirkungen zwischen Pflanzen und Pilzen; Evolution parasitischer und symbiotischer Beziehungen zwischen ihnen (in German).
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Harrie Sipman, Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin: Lichen determination keys available on INTERNET. A link list of specialized keys to lichens. There are also interactive keys, based on a character set in a database.

Clifford Smith, Department of Botany, University of Hawaii, Honolulu: The World of Lichenology. Links to lichens and lichenologists and The International Association of Lichenologists.
Now provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Hans Steur, Ellecom, The Netherlands: Hans´ Paleobotany Pages. Fossil plant images from the oldest land plants. Go to: Prototaxites.

W.A. Taylor et al. (2004): SEM analysis of Spongiophyton interpreted as a fossil lichen. In PDF, International Journal of Plant Sciences, 165: 875-881.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
! Lichen.

Q. Yang et al. (2023): The Jurassic epiphytic macrolichen Daohugouthallus reveals the oldest lichen-plant interaction in a Mesozoic forest ecosystem. Open access, iScience, 26.
Note figure 6: Habitus reconstruction of the fossil lichen Daohugouthallus ciliiferus growing on gymnosperm branches.