a rich diversity of fungi is known from the lower devonian rhynie chert; an earlier record is absent. since fungi do not biomineralise, they do not readily enter the fossil record; there are only three claims of early fungi. one from the ordovician has been dismissed on the grounds that it lacks any distinctly fungal features, and is held by many to be contamination; the position of a "probable" proterozoic fungus is still not established, and it may represent a stem group fungus. there is also a case for a fungal affinity for the enigmatic microfossil "ornatifilum". since the fungi form a sister group to the animals, the two lineages must have diverged before the first animal lineages, which are known from fossils as early as the ediacaran.