Botryococcus

Botryococcus is a genus of green algae. It is a microscopic or semi-microscopic alga that is found in freshwater habitats worldwide. It consists of colonies of cells in an irregular, gelatinous matrix.

Botryococcus

ja:User:NEON / User:NEON_ja · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
BotryococcaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Algae

Time the record covers

At least 305 million years on record.

The record covers at least 306 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 312.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 7 of 279 occurrencesPermian — about 8 of 279 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 279 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 279 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 279 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 279 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 10 of 279 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 279 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 31 of 279 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 110 of 279 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 25 of 279 occurrencesEocene — about 28 of 279 occurrencesOligocene — about 5 of 279 occurrencesMiocene — about 17 of 279 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 279 occurrencesPleistocene — about 34 of 279 occurrences319–308 Mya — about 5 occurrences308–298 Mya — about 2 occurrences298–287 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences287–277 Mya — about 2 occurrences277–266 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences266–255 Mya — about 3 occurrences255–245 Mya — about 2 occurrences181–170 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences170–160 Mya — about 10 occurrences160–149 Mya — about 1 occurrence149–138 Mya — about 3 occurrences138–128 Mya — about 3 occurrences128–117 Mya — about 3 occurrences117–106 Mya — about 15 occurrences106–96 Mya — about 25 occurrences96–85 Mya — about 16 occurrences85–74 Mya — about 8 occurrences74–64 Mya — about 79 occurrences64–53 Mya — about 14 occurrences53–43 Mya — about 13 occurrences43–32 Mya — about 15 occurrences32–21 Mya — about 7 occurrences21–11 Mya — about 12 occurrences11–0 Mya — about 40 occurrences306 Mya11.7 ka319 Mya0 Mya

279 occurrences of Botryococcus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

279 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

54 formations

Allen — 38.78°S, 67.93°WAllen — 38.77°S, 68.01°WBima — 12.08°N, 13.14°EBentiu — 9.35°N, 29.13°ELa Colonia — 42.99°S, 67.67°WLa Colonia — 43.10°S, 67.75°WLa Colonia — 42.52°S, 66.84°WLa Colonia — 42.97°S, 67.54°WLa Colonia — 43.01°S, 67.62°WMonte Chico — 51.59°S, 72.41°WMonte Chico — 51.18°S, 72.29°WAradeiba — 9.35°N, 29.13°EZarga-Ghazal — 9.35°N, 29.13°ELost Branch — 37.20°N, 95.42°WBaraka — 9.35°N, 29.13°ECerro Cazador — 51.59°S, 72.41°WCerro Cazador — 51.18°S, 72.22°WCerro Dorotea — 51.59°S, 72.41°WRiachuelo — 10.65°S, 37.04°WPuntudo Chico - La Colonia — 43.01°S, 66.47°WChenque — 45.86°S, 67.57°WChenque — 45.30°S, 69.03°WCerro Bororó — 43.67°S, 67.75°WJagüel — 35.83°S, 69.67°WFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°EBernburg — 52.12°N, 10.67°EKerrikerri — 12.08°N, 13.14°EYaw — 23.23°N, 94.25°ECalvoerde — 52.12°N, 10.67°EKachaike — 49.15°S, 72.07°WKachaike — 49.06°S, 72.14°WAshdown — 50.89°N, 0.68°ELealt Shale — 56.92°N, 6.15°W

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The named rock units Botryococcus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 30 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 69 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Botryococcus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Botryococcus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,716 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 251 sites for Botryococcus, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

63 references

Each of the 279 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 51 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Botryococcus

Credit
ja:User:NEON / User:NEON_ja
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Botryococcus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

Everything alive alongside itBotryococcaceae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kutzing 1849