Charophyta

Charophyta is a paraphyletic group of freshwater green algae, called charophytes, sometimes treated as a division, yet also as a superdivision. The terrestrial plants, the Embryophyta emerged deep within Charophyta, possibly from terrestrial unicellular charophytes, with the class Zygnematophyceae as a sister group.

Charophyta

Christian Fischer · 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
StreptophytaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 410 million years on record.

The record covers at least 410.62 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 413.02 Mya to 0 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 388 occurrencesDevonian — about 5 of 388 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 388 occurrencesPermian — about 16 of 388 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 388 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 388 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 8 of 388 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 388 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 4 of 388 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 27 of 388 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 36 of 388 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 98 of 388 occurrencesPaleocene — about 57 of 388 occurrencesEocene — about 70 of 388 occurrencesOligocene — about 5 of 388 occurrencesMiocene — about 40 of 388 occurrencesPliocene — about 13 of 388 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 388 occurrences421–407 Mya — about 2 occurrences407–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–379 Mya — about 3 occurrences295–281 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences281–267 Mya — about 3 occurrences267–253 Mya — about 13 occurrences253–239 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences239–225 Mya — about 3 occurrences225–211 Mya — about 4 occurrences211–197 Mya — about 1 occurrence169–154 Mya — about 8 occurrences154–140 Mya — about 26 occurrences140–126 Mya — about 8 occurrences126–112 Mya — about 22 occurrences112–98 Mya — about 4 occurrences98–84 Mya — about 5 occurrences84–70 Mya — about 46 occurrences70–56 Mya — about 101 occurrences56–42 Mya — about 41 occurrences42–28 Mya — about 34 occurrences28–14 Mya — about 22 occurrences14–0 Mya — about 42 occurrences410.62 Mya11.7 ka421 Mya0 Mya

388 occurrences of Charophyta on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

388 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

109 formations

Nomogen — 43.53°N, 111.73°EDeccan Intertrappean — 17.04°N, 81.78°EDeccan Intertrappean — 15.78°N, 74.52°EDeccan Intertrappean — 16.87°N, 77.39°EMorrison — 39.24°N, 109.00°WMorrison — 37.53°N, 103.68°WMorrison — 39.32°N, 110.69°WMorrison — 38.53°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 42.63°N, 105.44°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 38.81°N, 108.32°WMorrison — 46.85°N, 108.79°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WMorrison — 46.88°N, 108.87°WGlib Zegdou — 30.00°N, 4.00°WSerra da Galga — 19.63°S, 47.45°WSerra da Galga — 19.63°S, 47.23°WHuchpayacu — 7.21°S, 74.95°WTatrot — 30.73°N, 76.78°ETatrot — 30.81°N, 76.89°EPozo — 7.34°S, 74.95°WIsheevo — 55.78°N, 48.93°ELower Freshwater Molasse — 46.88°N, 7.11°EBembridge Limestone — 50.68°N, 1.10°WBagua — 5.51°S, 78.55°WBagua — 5.74°S, 78.51°WEl Collado — 40.59°N, 2.07°WArén — 42.13°N, 1.09°ELameta — 20.90°N, 79.28°ELameta — 21.37°N, 77.55°ELameta — 23.17°N, 79.95°EGrabowa — 50.67°N, 18.28°EHonglishan — 45.59°N, 87.83°EMarnes Rouges de Roquelongue — 43.05°N, 2.78°EMarnes Rouges de Roquelongue — 43.11°N, 2.83°ELa Posa — 42.27°N, 0.73°EJibou — 47.26°N, 23.26°EMuñani — 15.73°S, 70.17°WParsora — 24.70°N, 87.40°EAl Jir — 30.94°N, 15.50°EEl Castellar — 40.58°N, 0.69°WEl Castellar — 40.46°N, 0.74°W

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The named rock units Charophyta has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 85 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 90 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Charophyta and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Charophyta and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

2,870 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 201 sites for Charophyta, 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

145 references

Each of the 388 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. 133 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 Charophyta

Credit
Christian Fischer
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Charophyta 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 itStreptophyta through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Migula 1890