Coprophilous and non-coprophilous fungal spores of Bos mutus modern dung from the Indian Himalaya: Implications to temperate paleoherbivory and paleoecological analysis

Fungal spores preserved on dung of wild yak (Bos mutus) from the higher Himalayan region of India were studied in order to understand the differences in their diversity and abundance in summer and winter. A total of 19 coprophilous and non-coprophilous fungal spore types were recovered from the dung samples. The diversity of the fungal spores in both seasons was almost similar, but the overall frequency of the coprophilous fungi in the winter samples was relatively lower compared to the summer samples. Clumping of the coprophilous fungi, Sporormiella, Saccobolus, and Cercophora, was observed regularly in the assemblage, indicating that the dung was the primary food source for these fungal spores. Non-coprophilous fungi such as Glomus, Pleospora, and Tetraploa are also consistently recovered in the assemblage. Multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the coprophilous and non-coprophilous fungal frequency data indicated significant variation in summer and winter fungal types. Such differences in modern dung samples can serve as a baseline for the interpretation of coprolites of megafauna and provide insights into their ecology and extinction. Complementing paleoherbivory analysis, these baseline data can also be applied to the examination of sedimentary soil profiles to determine the presence and abundance of coprophilous fungi as a reflection of the former presence of megafauna in the region during the Quaternary. Such studies can also provide information on the relationship between the plants and animals in relation to the development of agro-pastoralism in the region.