Chara

Chara is a genus of charophyte green algae in the family Characeae. They are multicellular and superficially resemble land plants because of stem-like and leaf-like structures. They are found in freshwater, particularly in limestone areas throughout the northern temperate zone, where they grow submerged, attached to the muddy bottom. They prefer less oxygenated and hard water and are generally not found in waters where mosquito larvae are present.

Chara

Christian Fischer · 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
Also called
stonewortPBDB
Sits inside
CharoideaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Charophyta
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Charophyta

Time the record covers

At least 143 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 154.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 2 of 66 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 66 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 4 of 66 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 8 of 66 occurrencesEocene — about 22 of 66 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 66 occurrencesMiocene — about 10 of 66 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 66 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 66 occurrences158–153 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences153–147 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences142–137 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences74–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 4 occurrences63–58 Mya — about 4 occurrences58–53 Mya — about 4 occurrences53–47 Mya — about 4 occurrences47–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–37 Mya — about 4 occurrences37–32 Mya — about 9 occurrences32–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–5.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.3–0 Mya — about 15 occurrences143.1 Mya11.7 ka158 Mya0 Mya

66 occurrences of Chara on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

66 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

23 formations

Deccan Intertrappean — 17.04°N, 81.78°EDeccan Intertrappean — 15.78°N, 74.52°EBembridge Limestone — 50.68°N, 1.10°WTatrot — 30.73°N, 76.78°ETatrot — 30.81°N, 76.89°EHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WMorrison — 37.53°N, 103.68°WSerra da Galga — 19.63°S, 47.45°WSerra da Galga — 19.63°S, 47.23°WHuchpayacu — 7.21°S, 74.95°WYalakdere — 40.61°N, 29.25°EEifel — 50.10°N, 6.84°ECoal Valley — 39.52°N, 119.99°WFort Union — 39.48°N, 111.63°WOsborne Beds — 50.71°N, 1.10°WVenta del Moro-Villatoya — 39.48°N, 1.35°WMami Khel — 33.25°N, 71.14°ENomogen — 43.53°N, 111.73°EGlib Zegdou — 30.00°N, 4.00°WAl Jir — 30.94°N, 15.50°EVarswater — 32.97°S, 18.15°EArén — 42.13°N, 1.09°EBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°ELower Freshwater Molasse — 46.88°N, 7.11°ETakli — 21.35°N, 78.99°E

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The named rock units Chara has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chara and its relatives

Eocene

Where Chara and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

968 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 46 sites for Chara, and this reads all 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

31 references

Each of the 66 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. 19 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 Chara

Credit
Christian Fischer
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chara was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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

What may have been alongside itCharoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1753