Blue-stain fungis make up a distinct group of wood-colonizing fungis which do not have the capability to break down wood lignocellulose, yet can triggering considerable sapwood staining, especially in coniferous trees.

These fungis are normally non-fatal to their hosts, they frequently speed up tree death when associated with wood-boring bugs.

Molecular phylogenetic analyses recommend that blue-stain fungis need to be an old fungal group, which may stem throughout the Late Paleozoic or Early Mesozoic.

Barely anything is understood about the geological incidents of blue-stain fungis.

“Not till 2022, the very first trustworthy fossil record of blue-stain fungis was reported from the Cretaceous in South Africa with an age of roughly 80 million years,” stated Dr. Ning Tian, a paleontologist at Shenyang Normal University.

Dr. Tian and coworkers discovered unspoiled fossil fungal hyphae maintained within 160-million-year-old scared wood of Xenoxylon phyllocladoides from the Tiaojishan Formation in northeastern China.

“Microscopic assessment exposes the fossil hyphae are dark in color, which is a sign of coloring, a trademark of modern blue-stain fungis which leads to the staining of woods,” they stated.

“Of interest, when permeating the wood cell wall, the hyphae typically form a really specific structure called penetration peg.”

“That is to state when pressing through the wood’s cell walls, the hyphae frequently lose weight in size, making it much easier to pierce through the hard barrier.”

“The discovery of the penetration peg allowed us to make sure that the fossil fungi that we discovered comes from the blue-stain fungal group.”

“Unlike wood-decay fungis, which break down wood cell walls through enzymatic secretion, the blue-stain fungis do not have the enzymatic capability to decay wood structures.”

“Instead, their hyphae mechanically breach wood cell walls through the penetration pegs.”

“The finding of Jurassic blue-stain fungis from China, represents the 2nd report of the blue-stain fungis and the earliest fossil record of this fungal group on the planet, presses back the earliest recognized fossil record of this fungal group by around 80 million years, supplying important fossil proof for additional comprehending the origin and early development of blue-stain fungis,” stated Dr. Yongdong Wang, a paleontologist at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaenology.

“Additionally, it provides fresh insights into comprehending the environmental relationships in between the blue-stain fungis, plants, and pests throughout the Jurassic duration.”

“The bark beetle subfamily Scolytinae is thought about as one of the significant spore dispersal representatives for extant blue-stain.”

“However, both molecular biological and fossil proof proposed that the origin time of Scolytinae go back no earlier than the Early Cretaceous.”

“Given the Jurassic age of present fossil fungi, it is assumed that its spore dispersal vector was not Scolytinae however rather other wood-colonizing bugs common throughout that duration.”

The discovery is reported in a paper released in the June 2025 concern of the journal National Science Review

_____

Ning Tian et al2025. Blue-stain fungi from the Jurassic supplies brand-new insights into early development and environmental interactions. National Science Review 12 (6 ): nwaf160; doi: 10.1093/ nsr/nwaf160