Rhodophyta

Red algae, or Rhodophyta, make up one of the oldest and largest phyla of eukaryotic algae, containing over 7,000 recognized species within over 900 genera amidst ongoing taxonomic revisions. The majority of species (6,793) are in the class Florideophyceae, and mostly consist of multicellular marine algae, including many notable seaweeds. Red algae are abundant in marine habitats. Approximately 5% of red algae species occur in freshwater environments, with greater concentrations in warmer areas. This may be due to an evolutionary bottleneck in which the last common ancestor lost about 25% of its core genes and much of its evolutionary plasticity.

Rhodophyta

Coughdrop12 · 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
Also called
red algaePBDB
Sits inside
BiliphytaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB

Time the record covers

At least 999 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1000 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1200 Mya to 0 Mya.

Cambrian — about 158 of 8567 occurrencesOrdovician — about 416 of 8567 occurrencesSilurian — about 49 of 8567 occurrencesDevonian — about 61 of 8567 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 275 of 8567 occurrencesPermian — about 315 of 8567 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 1 of 8567 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 51 of 8567 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 160 of 8567 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 2 of 8567 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 8567 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 74 of 8567 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 264 of 8567 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 236 of 8567 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1157 of 8567 occurrencesEocene — about 1665 of 8567 occurrencesOligocene — about 651 of 8567 occurrencesMiocene — about 1954 of 8567 occurrencesPliocene — about 291 of 8567 occurrencesPleistocene — about 490 of 8567 occurrences1224–1183 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1183–1142 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1142–1102 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1102–1061 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1061–1020 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1020–979 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences653–612 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences612–571 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences571–530 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences530–490 Mya — about 158 occurrences490–449 Mya — about 357 occurrences449–408 Mya — about 118 occurrences408–367 Mya — about 43 occurrences367–326 Mya — about 190 occurrences326–286 Mya — about 126 occurrences286–245 Mya — about 289 occurrences245–204 Mya — about 178 occurrences204–163 Mya — about 32 occurrences163–122 Mya — about 114 occurrences122–82 Mya — about 382 occurrences82–41 Mya — about 2153 occurrences41–0 Mya — about 4426 occurrences1000 Mya11.7 ka1224 Mya0 Mya

8,567 occurrences of Rhodophyta 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

8,567 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

649 formations

Tortonian Limestone — 35.00°N, 24.76°ESylhet Formation — 25.26°N, 91.72°ELakadong — 25.16°N, 92.39°ELakadong — 25.19°N, 91.76°ESinjar — 35.10°N, 45.59°ESinjar — 37.18°N, 43.22°ESinjar — 35.35°N, 45.42°ESinjar — 35.38°N, 45.49°ESinjar — 35.54°N, 45.30°ESinjar — 36.35°N, 41.50°ESinjar — 36.36°N, 41.83°ESinjar — 36.66°N, 44.24°EPinczow — 50.47°N, 20.80°EPinczow — 50.52°N, 20.53°EQom Formation — 33.51°N, 51.99°EQom Formation — 34.51°N, 50.95°EMarne di Priabona — 45.52°N, 11.54°EMarne di Priabona — 45.43°N, 11.55°EGuitar Formation — 9.12°N, 92.80°EUmatac — 13.33°N, 144.68°EUmatac — 13.43°N, 144.72°EUmatac — 13.50°N, 144.78°EMolare — 44.37°N, 8.20°EMolare — 44.50°N, 8.48°EMolare — 44.50°N, 8.36°EMolare — 44.60°N, 8.16°EMiyara — 24.42°N, 124.08°EMiyara — 24.35°N, 124.22°EMiyara — 24.52°N, 124.28°EMiyara — 24.43°N, 124.25°ELithothamnion limestone — 45.19°N, 16.37°ENavarri — 42.40°N, 0.40°EChangxing — 29.92°N, 106.43°EChangxing — 30.92°N, 119.99°EChangxing — 26.33°N, 105.93°EChangxing — 29.50°N, 106.40°EChangxing — 33.08°N, 106.91°EChangxing — 30.48°N, 109.05°EChangxing — 29.42°N, 110.92°ETziqlag — 31.57°N, 34.62°ETziqlag — 31.30°N, 34.62°ETziqlag — 31.80°N, 34.73°ETziqlag — 31.65°N, 34.72°ETziqlag — 31.68°N, 34.58°ETziqlag — 31.38°N, 34.67°ETziqlag — 32.08°N, 34.88°ETziqlag — 31.83°N, 34.97°ETziqlag — 32.78°N, 35.12°EMauddud Limestone — 30.50°N, 47.68°ENovaglie — 39.87°N, 18.38°ENovaglie — 39.78°N, 18.37°ENovaglie — 39.78°N, 18.33°ECluj Limestone — 46.70°N, 23.56°ECluj Limestone — 46.75°N, 23.38°EUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.95°N, 14.35°EUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.93°N, 14.33°EUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.92°N, 14.38°EZongpu — 28.07°N, 89.19°EZongpu — 28.29°N, 88.59°EZongpu — 28.30°N, 88.66°EZongpu — 28.30°N, 88.51°ESerraduy — 42.41°N, 0.40°ESerraduy — 42.32°N, 0.57°EDobranberg Formation — 46.83°N, 14.53°EChaya — 21.97°N, 70.50°EChaya — 23.33°N, 71.93°EChaya — 21.58°N, 69.63°EChaya — 22.45°N, 69.07°EChaya — 22.33°N, 68.95°EChaya — 22.42°N, 69.00°EGornji Grad — 46.19°N, 14.68°EGornji Grad — 46.32°N, 14.59°EGornji Grad — 46.28°N, 14.26°EGornji Grad — 46.28°N, 14.25°E

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The named rock units Rhodophyta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 625 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 3,281 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Rhodophyta and its relatives

Miocene

Where Rhodophyta and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,638 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,058 sites for Rhodophyta, 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

990 references

Each of the 8,567 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. 978 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 Rhodophyta

Credit
Coughdrop12
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Rhodophyta 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 itBiliphyta through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wettstein 1922