Palaeoaplysina

Palaeoaplysina
Temporal range: Upper Carboniferous –Lower Permian
Scientific classification
Phylum: Rhodophyta
Class: Florideophyceae
stem group: Corallinales
Order: †Archaeolithophyllales (?)
Family: †Palaeoaplysinaceae
Genus: †Palaeoaplysina

Palaeoaplysina is a genus of tabular, calcified fossils that are a component of many Late Palaeozoic reefs.[1] The fossil acted as a baffle to trap sediment. Historically interpreted as a sponge or hydrozoan,[2] recent studies are converging to its classification in the coralline stem group, placing it among the red algae.[1]

Contents

Morphology

The thalloid organism had a series of internal canals opening in volcano-like domes, inviting comparison to filter-feeding organisms. On the other hand, it seems to have had a calcified cellular make up akin to that of the coralline reds, suggesting that it was either a stem-group coralline or a coralline-encrusted filter feeder.[3]

Distribution

The organism is widespread in the tropical/near-tropical margin of the Laurentian continent (from 45–15°N), but is not found elsewhere.[4] It acts as an important reservoir rock for oil deposits.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b K. D. Anderson; B. Beauchamp (2011). "Development of a Palaeoaplysina Reef Complex, Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic". Recovery – 2011 CSPG CSEG CWLS Convention 1. http://www.cseg.ca/conventions/abstracts/2011/259-Development_of_a_Palaeoaplysina_Reef_Complex.pdf. 
  2. ^ Davies, G. R.; Nassichuk, W. W. (1973). "The Hydrozoan? Palaeoaplysina from the Upper Paleozoic of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada". Journal of Paleontology 47 (2): 251–265. doi:10.2307/1302890. JSTOR 1302890.  edit
  3. ^ a b Kaylee Anderson, Benoit Beauchamp (2010). "The Origin and Ecology of Late Paleozoic Palaeoaplysina in Arctic Canada: An Aberrant Ancestral Coralline Algae (?) that Grew at a Time of High Atmospheric CO2". GeoCanada. http://www.geocanada2010.ca/program/program-schedule/posters.html. 
  4. ^ Vachard, D.; Kabanov, P. (2007). "Palaeoaplysinella gen. Nov. And Likinia Ivanova and Ilkhovskii, 1973 emend., from the type Moscovian (Russia) and the algal affinities of the ancestral palaeoaplysinaceae n. Comb". Geobios 40 (6): 849–860. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2007.01.006.  edit