Phymatolithon

Phymatolithon is a genus of non geniculate coralline red algae, known from the UK, and Australia. It is encrusting, flat, and unbranched; it has tetrasporangia and bisporangia borne in multiporate conceptacles. Some of its cells bear small holes in the middle; this distinctive thallus texture is termed a "Leptophytum-type" thallus surface, and has been posited as a taxonomically informative character. It periodically sloughs off its epithallus, reducing its overgrowth by algae by as much as 50% compared to bare rock.

Phymatolithon

Christophe Quintin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
LithothamniacaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Rhodophyta

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 59.24 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Paleocene — about 1 of 70 occurrencesEocene — about 19 of 70 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 70 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 28 of 70 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 70 occurrencesPleistocene — about 5 of 70 occurrences60–58 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 5 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 7 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 5 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 4 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–8.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.1–6.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.0–4.0 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.0–2.0 Mya — about 10 occurrences2.0–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences48.07 Mya129 ka60 Mya0 Mya

70 occurrences of Phymatolithon on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

70 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

22 formations

Guitar Formation — 9.12°N, 92.80°EMonte S Angelo — 42.69°N, 9.32°ECalcari a Briozoi e Litotamni — 41.40°N, 14.01°ECalcari a Briozoi e Litotamni — 41.45°N, 13.92°ECalcari a Briozoi e Litotamni — 41.53°N, 13.77°ECalcari a Briozoi e Litotamni — 41.64°N, 13.66°ETabiago — 45.80°N, 9.15°EMolare — 44.50°N, 8.48°EFulra Limestone — 23.51°N, 68.69°ENovaglie — 39.87°N, 18.38°ENovaglie — 37.13°N, 2.08°WChaya — 22.42°N, 69.00°ELakadong — 25.16°N, 92.39°EPartimao — 37.08°N, 8.68°WCapo Testa — 41.24°N, 9.16°EGarbova de Sus — 46.37°N, 23.66°EAnanokuchi Sandstone — 33.10°N, 129.68°ENeill West Coast — 11.84°N, 93.02°EChhasra — 22.83°N, 68.15°EBolognano — 42.17°N, 14.04°EPozba — 47.82°N, 18.64°EBorove — 49.06°N, 20.10°EPakhna — 34.97°N, 34.08°EKoronia — 35.05°N, 33.15°EBorové — 49.28°N, 19.75°E

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The named rock units Phymatolithon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 28 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Phymatolithon and its relatives

Miocene

Where Phymatolithon and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

126 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 53 sites for Phymatolithon, 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

28 references

Each of the 70 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. 16 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 Phymatolithon

Credit
Christophe Quintin
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Phymatolithon 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 itLithothamniacae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Foslie 1898