Aton Forest Fauna

This section includes research on the lichens of Aton Forest which help deepen our understanding of these unique organisms and their interactions with the environment.

Lichens are hybrid colonies of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among filaments of multiple fungi species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or “skin”, in a mutualistic relationship. Lichens are the lifeform that first brought the term symbiosis into biological context.

Mason E. Hale, Jr. (1929-1990) was one of the most prolific American lichenologists of the 20th century. Many of his scholarly articles focused on the taxonomy of the family Parmeliaceae. Hale was one of the first lichen experts to incorporate secondary chemistry and technology such as computers and scanning electron microscopy into taxonomic work. Mason Hale published approximately two hundred articles and books on various aspects of lichen biology including taxonomy, anatomy, chemistry, and ecology. Hale also wrote several books aimed at education and increasing accessibility to lichens.

Mason Hale Jr. grew up on a farm outside of Winsted, Connecticut. He had an affinity towards biology from experiences from living on his family’s farm. He earned an undergraduate degree studying biology at Yale University, where he studied lichens under Alexander W. Evans, a bryophyte and lichen expert. He spent the summer of 1949 at Aton Forest, the estate of ecologist Frank Egler, in Norfolk, CT, and produced a thesis on the lichen flora found there. This became his first piece of published work, appearing in The Bryologist in 1950.

Hale was a curator of lichens in the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History for 33 years. During his tenure, he collected nearly 80,000 specimens for the museum. Hale was innovative in his use of chemical tests and modern technology in his study of lichens. In particular, he used thin-layer chromatography to separate out their organic components and discover new layers in their structure.



The Lichens of Aton Forest, CT. By Mason Hale, Jr.
View PDF of The Lichens of Aton Forest, CT. By Mason Hale, Jr.

Mason Hale’s 1949 Lichen Inventory of Aton Forest
View PDF of Mason Hale’s 1949 Lichen Inventory of Aton Forest

Mason Hale, Jr. 1990 Obituary
View PDF of Aton Forest Lichens Research

The Lichens of Spaulding Pond Preserve
Spaulding Pond Lichens & Bryophytes: List of lichens and bryophytes observed at Spaulding Pond, Norfolk, CT, 5 May 2021 by Steven Messier and Christopher Mangels.
View PDF of Spaulding Pond Lichens & Bryophytes

To continue exploring the world of lichens and lichen research, check out
Consortium of Lichen Herbaria: Building a Global Consortium of Bryophytes and Lichens as Keystones of Cryptobiotic Communities.

Consortium of Lichen Herbaria
The Consortium serves as gateway to biodiversity data of lichenized fungi. It unites records not only from lichen herbaria in North America, but also from herbaria in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, as well as personal collections and research observations.