Fungi diverged from other life around 1,500 million years ago, (Wang et al., 1999)[1] with the glomaleans branching from the "higher fungi" at ~, according to DNA analysis. (Schüßler et al., 2001; Tehler et al., 2000)[1] Fungi probably colonised the land during the Cambrian, over , (Taylor & Osborn, 1996)[1] but fossils only become uncontroversial and common during the Devonian, .[1]
A rich diversity of fungi is known from the lower Devonian Rhynie chert, an earlier record is absent. Since fungi don't biomineralise, they do not readily enter the fossil record; only three claims of early fungi. One from the Ordovician[2] has been dismissed on the grounds that it lacks any distinctly fungal features, and is held by many to be contamination;[3] the position of a "probable" Proterozoic fungus is still not established,[3] and it may represent a stem group fungus. There is also a case for a fungal affinity for the enigmatic microfossil Ornatifilum. Since the fungi form a sister group to the animals, the two lineages must have diverged before the first animal lineages, which are known from fossils as early as the Ediacaran.[4]
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