{{Short description|Extinct genus of fungi}} {{Italic title}} {{speciesbox |name = ''Protomycena'' | fossil_range = {{Fossilrange|Burdigalian}} | image = Protomycena electra.JPG | image_caption = Artist's reconstruction | parent_authority = Hibbett, Grimaldi & Donoghue | taxon = Protomycena electra | authority = Hibbett, Grimaldi & Donoghue | range_map = Caribbean - Hispaniola.PNG | range_map_caption = ''Protomycena'' is known only from amber deposits on the island of Hispaniola, north of South America }}
'''''Protomycena''''' is an extinct monotypic genus of gilled fungus in the family Mycenaceae, of order Agaricales.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/> At present it contains the single species '''''Protomycena electra''''', known from a single specimen collected in an amber mine in the Cordillera Septentrional area of the Dominican Republic. The fruit body of the fungus has a convex cap that is {{convert|5|mm|in|1|abbr=on}} in diameter, with distantly spaced gills on the underside. The curved stipe is smooth and cylindrical, measuring {{convert|0.75|mm|in|abbr=on}} thick by {{convert|10|mm|in|abbr=on}} long, and lacks a ring. It resembles extant (currently living) species of the genus ''Mycena''. ''Protomycena'' is one of only five known agaric fungus species known in the fossil record and the second to be described from Dominican amber.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/><ref name="Hibbettal2003"/>
==Discovery and classification== The genus is known only from the holotype specimen, a single fruit body (mushroom) currently residing in the private collection owned by Ettore Morone of Turin, Italy.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/><ref name="Engel1995"/> The specimen was collected in one of the amber mines in the Cordillera Septentrional area of the island of Hispaniola, in the Dominican Republic. The amber is believed to date from the Miocene Burdigalian stage, about 20 to 16 million years before the present.<ref name="IVMcP1996"/> It was first studied by a group of researchers consisting of David Hibbett and Michael Donoghue from Harvard University, with David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History. Hibbett and colleagues published their 1997 type description in the ''American Journal of Botany''.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/> The generic name ''Protomycena'' is noted as "first", and "''Mycena''", a modern genus that it resembles. The specific epithet ''electra'' was coined by the authors from the Latin or Greek word for "amber", in reference to the mode of preservation.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/>
When it was reported, ''Protomycena electra'' was the third species of fossil agaric fungus to be described. The two species ''Coprinites dominicana'' and ''Aureofungus yaniguaensis'' are also known from the amber mines of the Dominican Republic, while the fourth species ''Archaeomarasmius leggeti'' is from the older, Cretaceous age New Jersey Amber.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/><ref name="Hibbettal2003"/> With the 2007 publication of a fifth extinct agaric species, ''Palaeoagaracites antiquus'', the minimum age for the order Agaricales was pushed back to the Albian (approximately 100 Ma).<ref name="Poinar2007"/>
==Description== [[File:Mycena adscendens 79019.jpg|thumb|180px|right|''Protomycena'' is similar in appearance to modern ''Mycena'' species, such as ''M. adscendens'' shown here.]] The holotype of ''Protomycena'' is a single fruit body without any associated structures, preserved in a piece of clear light yellow polished amber approximately {{convert|4.5|–|2.5|cm|in|abbr=on}} wide. The pileus is {{convert|5|mm|in|1|abbr=on}} in diameter and has a convex shape, sporting a raised central region (an umbo). The pale flesh appears yellowish in the amber, and is smooth and glossy, changing to striate and slightly translucent towards the margin. The pileus margin is striated and slightly flared. The gills on the underside of the pileus are broadly attached (adnate) to the top of the stipe, and distantly spaced—between six and eight gills extend completely from the pileus margin to the stipe. These full-length gills are anastomosed with lamellulae (short gills which do not reach the edge of the stipe from the pileus margin) of varying lengths.<ref name="Hibbettal2003"/> The pileus is centered on the curved stipe, which is smooth and cylindrical, measuring {{convert|0.75|mm|in|abbr=on}} thick by {{convert|10|mm|in|abbr=on}} long. The stipe lacks a ring and rhizoids. The mushroom is preserved with a small liquid and gas-filled bubble, possibly originating from the mushroom itself, which indicates the amber to be very solid and well-sealed.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/>
In Hibbett and colleagues' 1997 publication, ''Protomycena'' was placed in the subfamily ''Myceneae'', which at the time was considered part of the family Tricholomataceae;<ref name="Kirk2001"/> ''Mycena'' is currently classified in the family Mycenaceae.<ref name="Kirk2008"/><ref name="urlMycoBank: Mycena"/> The placement was based solely on the visible structures, or macromorphology of the fruit body. Many of the features which are typically used to classify species into fungal families and subfamilies are based on microscopic features not visible or preserved in the amber specimen. Consequently, the assignment to ''Mycena'' is provisional (the authors also note certain similarities with extant members of ''Marasmius''), and the describing authors leave open the option of treating the genus placement as ''incertae sedis'' (uncertain placement) within the Agaricales. ''Protomycena'' is distinct from other amber-preserved mushroom taxa such as ''Coprinites'', in the grooved surface of its pileus and its anastomosing gills.<ref name="Hibbettal1997"/>
==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=
<ref name="Engel1995">{{cite journal |author=Engel MS. |year=1995 |title=New Augochlorine bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) in Dominican Amber, with a brief review of fossil Halictidae |journal=Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=334–349 |jstor=25085728}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
<ref name="Hibbettal1997">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Hibbett DS, Grimaldi DS, Donoghue MJ |year=1997 |title=Fossil mushrooms from Miocene and Cretaceous ambers and the evolution of Homobasidiomycetes |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=84 |issue=8 |pages=981–991 |doi=10.2307/2446289|jstor=2446289 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
<ref name="Hibbettal2003">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Hibbett DS, Grimaldi D, Donoghue MJ |year=2003 |title=Another fossil agaric from Dominican Amber |journal=Mycologia |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=685–687 |doi=10.2307/3761943 |jstor=3761943 |pmid=21148976}}</ref>
<ref name="IVMcP1996">{{cite journal |vauthors=Iturralde-Vinent MA, ((MacPhee RDE)) |year=1996 |title=Age and paleogeographical origin of Dominican Amber |journal=Science |volume=273 |pages=1850–1852 |doi=10.1126/science.273.5283.1850 |issue=5283|bibcode=1996Sci...273.1850I |s2cid=129754021 }}</ref>
<ref name="Kirk2001">{{cite book |vauthors=Kirk PM, Cannon PF, David JC, Stalpers JA|title=Ainsworth & Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi |edition=9th |publisher=CABI Bioscience |location=Oxon, UK |year=2001 |page=337 |isbn=0-85199-377-X}}</ref>
<ref name="Kirk2008">{{cite book |vauthors=Kirk PM, Cannon PF, Minter DW, Stalpers JA |title=Dictionary of the Fungi |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryfungit00kirk |url-access=limited |edition=10th |publisher=CABI |location=Wallingford, UK |year=2008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryfungit00kirk/page/n455 445] |isbn=978-0-85199-826-8}}</ref>
<ref name="Poinar2007">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Poinar GO, Buckley R |year=2007 |title=Evidence of mycoparasitism and hypermycoparasitism in Early Cretaceous amber |journal=Mycological Research |volume=111 |issue=4 |pages=503–506 |doi=10.1016/j.mycres.2007.02.004 |pmid=17512712}}</ref>
<ref name="urlMycoBank: Mycena">{{cite web |url=http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Link=T&Rec=18084 |title=''Mycena'' (Pers.) Roussel 1806 |publisher=International Mycological Association |work=MycoBank |access-date=2010-11-10}}</ref>
}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100613140318/http://botany.org/plantimages/ImageData.asp?IDN=abot84-7&IS=700 Botanical Society of America] Image of amber specimen
{{Good article}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q1939683}}
†Protomycena †Protomycena Category:Prehistoric fungi Category:Natural history of Hispaniola Category:Fossil taxa described in 1997 Category:Miocene life Category:Natural history of the Dominican Republic Category:Neogene fungi Category:Monotypic Agaricales genera