Mastodia

Mastodia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Verrucariaceae. It has six species.[2] The genus was circumscribed in 1847 by Joseph Dalton Hooker and William Henry Harvey.[3] The type species, Mastodia tessellata, is a bipolar (i.e., found in both the Arctic and Antarctica), coastal lichen. It forms a symbiotic association with the macroscopic genus Prasiola; this is the only known lichen symbiosis involving a foliose green alga.[4] Studies suggest that throughout its geographic range, the lichen comprises two fungal species (the mycobionts) and three algal lineages (the photobionts) that associate.[5]

Mastodia
Mastodia tesselata lichen (dark in color) growing on rocks in an intertidal zone frequented by Gentoo penguins (visible in background)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Eurotiomycetes
Order:	Verrucariales
Family:	Verrucariaceae
Genus:	Mastodia Hook.f. & Harv. (1847)
Type species
Mastodia tessellata (Hook.f. & Harv.) Hook.f. & Harv. (1847)
Species
M. antarctica M. borealis M. georgica M. mawsonii M. mexicana M. tessellata
Synonyms[1]
Leptogiopsis Nyl. (1884) Dermatomeris Reinsch (1890) Kohlmeyera S.Schatz (1980)

Mastodia was once classified in the eponymously named, monogeneric family Mastodiaceae, proposed by Alexander Zahlbruckner in 1908. Over a century later, molecular phylogenetics analysis demonstrated that Mastodia tessellata belongs to the family Verrucariaceae, and has a sister taxon relationship with the marine genus Wahlenbergiella.[6]