Spizellomycetales [SEP] parent taxon
Spizellomycetales
Spizellomycetales is an order of fungi in the Chytridiomycetes. Spizellomycetalean chytrids are essentially ubiquitous zoospore-producing fungi found in soils where they decompose pollen. Recently they have also been found in dung and harsh alpine environments, greatly expanding the range of habitats where one can expect to find these fungi.
Role in the environment.
Spizellomycetalean chytrids have beneficial roles in the soil for nutrient recycling and as parasites of organisms that attack plants, such as nematodes and oospores of downy mildews. On the other hand, they also
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of