Botryococcus braunii

Botryococcus braunii is a green, pyramid-shaped planktonic microalga that is of potentially great importance in the field of biotechnology. Until 2024 it was considered to have three races: A, B, and L., but it was then determined that these are three separate species. Colonies are held together by a lipid biofilm matrix can be found in temperate or tropical oligotrophic lakes and estuaries, and will bloom when in the presence of elevated levels of dissolved inorganic phosphorus. The species is notable for its ability to produce high amounts of hydrocarbons, especially oils in the form of triterpenes, that are typically around 30–40% of their dry weight. Compared to other green alge species it has a relatively thick cell wall that is accumulated from previous cellular divisions, making extraction of cytoplasmic components rather difficult. Much of the useful hydrocarbon oil is outside of the cell.

Botryococcus braunii

ja:User:NEON / User:NEON_ja · 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
BotryococcusPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Algae

Time the record covers

At least 258 million years on record.

The record covers at least 274.4 Mya to 15.98 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 293.52 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 0 of 28 occurrencesPermian — about 1 of 28 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 28 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 28 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 28 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 28 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 28 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 28 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 28 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 8 of 28 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 3 of 28 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 28 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 28 occurrencesMiocene — about 9 of 28 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 28 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 28 occurrences299–289 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences289–279 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences279–269 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences170–160 Mya — about 1 occurrence150–140 Mya — about 1 occurrence110–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences90–80 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences80–70 Mya — about 3 occurrences70–60 Mya — about 6 occurrences60–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–40 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences40–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–20 Mya — about 5 occurrences20–10.0 Mya — about 6 occurrences10.0–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence274.4 Mya15.98 Mya299 Mya0 Mya

28 occurrences of Botryococcus braunii on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

28 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

10 formations

Puntudo Chico - La Colonia — 43.01°S, 66.47°WChenque — 45.86°S, 67.57°WCullen — 53.00°S, 68.67°WCullen — 52.87°S, 68.41°WFoulden Hills Diatomite — 45.53°S, 170.22°ETaratu — 43.18°S, 171.78°ELa Colonia — 42.99°S, 67.67°WLa Colonia — 43.10°S, 67.75°WWellington — 38.68°N, 97.23°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.99°N, 1.80°WRabekke — 55.05°N, 14.80°EPalana — 27.84°N, 73.26°E

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The named rock units Botryococcus braunii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Botryococcus braunii and its relatives

Miocene

Where Botryococcus braunii and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

412 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Botryococcus braunii, 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

14 references

Each of the 28 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. 2 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 Botryococcus braunii

Credit
ja:User:NEON / User:NEON_ja
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Botryococcus braunii 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 itBotryococcus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kutzing 1849