{"id":126423,"date":"2026-09-27T11:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T06:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=126423"},"modified":"2026-09-27T14:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:20:25","slug":"vizellopsidites-miocenicus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/vizellopsidites-miocenicus\/","title":{"rendered":"Vizellopsidites miocenicus"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Vizellopsidites miocenicus Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers recently discovered a new species of ancient, microscopic fungus, named Vizellopsidites miocenicus.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Vizellopsidites miocenicus<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a<strong> n<\/strong><\/span><b>ew species of ancient, microscopic fungus.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was found perfectly preserved on a<\/span><b> fossilised plant leaf from up to 12 million years ago<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the foothills of the<\/span><b> western Himalayas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the Mandi District of <\/span><b>Himachal Pradesh.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because the delicate fungus was <\/span><b>practically invisible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the naked eye, the researchers <\/span><b>used a chemical process called maceration.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It involves<\/span><b> bathing the fossil <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in a series of <\/span><b>gentle acids <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to <\/span><b>dissolve the surrounding rock <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and isolate the leaf&#8217;s transparent, waxy outer layer.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When they placed this surviving leaf fragment<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">under a high-powered light microscope, the <\/span><b>intricate, dark-brown structures of the ancient fungus <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">were revealed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The specific name, <\/span><b>miocenicus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, directly <\/span><b>references the Late <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/miocene-epoch\/\" target=\"_blank\">Miocene epoch<\/a>,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the geological time period roughly <\/span><b>8 to 12 million years ago when the fungus lived<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and fossilised.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It features <\/span><b>larger cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a much looser, net-like arrangement of alternating side branches, which grew in dense mats that primarily branched at the tips.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It features<\/span><b> distinct, circular fruiting bodies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the structures that once released spores, nestled beneath a dark, protective web of cells.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By comparing the fossil to its <\/span><b>modern-day fungal relatives,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which <\/span><b>grow only in very warm, highly humid tropical environments,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the scientists deduced what this region once looked like.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The presence of V. miocenicus serves as direct <\/span><b>evidence that millions of years ago,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the terrain of the <\/span><b>Himachal Himalaya was not the cooler, mountainous environment <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we know today, but <\/span><b>rather a dense, sweltering, and vibrant tropical forest. <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/researchmatters.in\/news\/new-species-of-ancient-fungus-discovered-on-a-12-million-year-old-fossilised-leaf-from-himachal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>RM<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vizellopsidites miocenicus, a new ancient fungus species, was found preserved on a 12-million-year-old fossil leaf in Himachal Pradesh. Read more about Vizellopsidites miocenicus, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":126484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,23,10518],"class_list":["post-126423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-vizellopsidites-miocenicus","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126423"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126485,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126423\/revisions\/126485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}