Chlorodesmis

Chlorodesmis is a genus of green algae in the family Udoteaceae. Algae in this genus produce the toxic diterpene chlorodesmin to defend themselves against generalist herbivores This toxin also kills certain corals that touch the alga. Certain fish like the green coral goby that live in the corals eat the alga to enhance their own toxicity. Other coral dwelling fish like Paragobiodon echinocephalus actively trim the alga even though they don't eat it.

Chlorodesmis

Dr. Robert Ricker, NOAA/NOS/ORR · Public Domain · 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
UdoteaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Bryopsidales
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Bryopsidales
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Bryopsidales
Environment
lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Chlorophyta

Time the record covers

At most 12 thousand years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 0 of 1 occurrenceHolocene — about 1 of 1 occurrence17 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence512 ka0 Mya

1 occurrence of Chlorodesmis on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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

1 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.

Chlorodesmis and its relatives

Holocene

Where Chlorodesmis and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Chlorodesmis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Chlorodesmis

Credit
Dr. Robert Ricker, NOAA/NOS/ORR
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chlorodesmis 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 itUdoteaceae through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Harvey and Bailey 1841