Sporolithaceae

The Sporolithaceae is the only known family of algae in the Sporolithales order.

Sporolithaceae

Derek Keats from Johannesburg, South Africa · CC BY 2.0 · 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
SporolithalesPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Rhodophyta

Time the record covers

At least 132 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 137.05 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 21 of 589 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 12 of 589 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 116 of 589 occurrencesEocene — about 257 of 589 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 70 of 589 occurrencesMiocene — about 84 of 589 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 589 occurrencesPleistocene — about 19 of 589 occurrences140–135 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences135–130 Mya — about 2 occurrences130–126 Mya — about 3 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 1 occurrence121–116 Mya — about 5 occurrences116–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 2 occurrences107–103 Mya — about 4 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 3 occurrences98–93 Mya — about 2 occurrences93–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–84 Mya — about 2 occurrences84–79 Mya — about 2 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 2 occurrences75–70 Mya — about 2 occurrences70–65 Mya — about 4 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 21 occurrences61–56 Mya — about 93 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 53 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 48 occurrences47–42 Mya — about 35 occurrences42–37 Mya — about 45 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 79 occurrences33–28 Mya — about 18 occurrences28–23 Mya — about 44 occurrences23–19 Mya — about 15 occurrences19–14 Mya — about 28 occurrences14–9.3 Mya — about 26 occurrences9.3–4.7 Mya — about 18 occurrences4.7–0 Mya — about 28 occurrences132.6 Mya11.7 ka140 Mya0 Mya

589 occurrences of Sporolithaceae 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

589 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

115 formations

Sylhet Formation — 25.26°N, 91.72°EDobranberg Formation — 46.83°N, 14.53°ELakadong — 25.16°N, 92.39°ELakadong — 25.19°N, 91.76°EMarne di Priabona — 45.52°N, 11.54°EMarne di Priabona — 45.43°N, 11.55°EPrang — 25.18°N, 92.38°EPrang — 25.18°N, 91.77°ENavarri — 42.38°N, 0.39°ECluj Limestone — 46.70°N, 23.56°ECluj Limestone — 46.75°N, 23.38°ELower Coralline Limestone — 35.92°N, 14.42°ERasov — 48.80°N, 17.73°ECanada — 37.59°N, 3.15°WCanada — 38.20°N, 2.22°WHricocske Podhradie — 49.22°N, 18.46°EHricocske Podhradie — 49.22°N, 18.70°EGornji Grad — 46.19°N, 14.68°EGornji Grad — 46.28°N, 14.26°EGornji Grad — 46.28°N, 14.25°ECalcari a Briozoi e Litotamni — 42.06°N, 13.24°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°EKambuhel Limestone — 48.57°N, 17.39°ETaballar Limestone — 0.48°S, 117.11°EPinczow — 50.52°N, 20.53°EBassein — 18.93°N, 72.48°EBassein — 18.92°N, 72.41°ESylhet Limestone — 22.31°N, 88.28°ESylhet Limestone — 22.59°N, 88.01°ESylhet Limestone — 23.10°N, 88.55°ESylhet Limestone — 22.21°N, 88.17°ESylhet Limestone — 22.90°N, 88.50°EBarra Honda — 10.34°N, 85.39°WBarra Honda — 8.40°N, 83.03°WKravarikovci — 48.73°N, 17.64°EKravarikovci — 49.11°N, 18.44°EProc — 49.05°N, 21.46°EProc — 48.81°N, 22.32°EKambuhel Limestone — 47.54°N, 13.50°ESedini — 40.82°N, 8.83°EBorové — 49.28°N, 19.75°E

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The named rock units Sporolithaceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 91 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 170 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sporolithaceae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Sporolithaceae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

581 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 456 sites for Sporolithaceae, 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

173 references

Each of the 589 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. 161 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 Sporolithaceae

Credit
Derek Keats from Johannesburg, South Africa
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sporolithaceae 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 itSporolithales through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Verheij 1993