Dictyochaceae

The silicoflagellates are a small group of unicellular photosynthetic protists, or algae, belonging to the supergroup of eukaryotes known as Stramenopiles. They behave as phytoplankton and are present in oceanic waters. They are well known from harmful algal blooms that cause high mortality of fish. Additionally, they compose a rich fossil record represented by their silica skeletons.

Dictyochaceae

Minami Himemiya · 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
PhytomastigophoraPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Chrysophyceae
Life habit
planktonicPBDB, for Chrysophyceae
Motility
passively mobilePBDB, for Chrysophyceae

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 77 of 931 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 45 of 931 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 10 of 931 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 931 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 135 of 931 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 98 of 931 occurrencesPleistocene — about 560 of 931 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–80 Mya — about 3 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 3 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 3 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 14 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 29 occurrences68–65 Mya — about 25 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 13 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 13 occurrences60–57 Mya — about 13 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 4 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 2 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–20 Mya — about 9 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 10 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 28 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 27 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 26 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 30 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 82 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 584 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

931 occurrences of Dictyochaceae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

931 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

7 formations

Lopez de Bertodano — 64.25°S, 56.75°WSobral — 64.25°S, 56.75°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WRosarito Beach — 32.12°N, 116.80°WKellogg — 37.87°N, 121.75°WFormación Coquimbo — 30.32°S, 71.52°WChilcatay — 14.38°S, 75.90°W

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The named rock units Dictyochaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 771 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dictyochaceae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Dictyochaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

464 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 358 sites for Dictyochaceae, 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

29 references

Each of the 931 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. 17 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 Dictyochaceae

Credit
Minami Himemiya
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dictyochaceae 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

What may have been alongside itPhytomastigophora through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lemmermann 1901