Chlorophyceae
The Chlorophyceae, also known as chlorophycean algae, are one of the classes of green algae, within the phylum Chlorophyta. They are a large assemblage of mostly freshwater and terrestrial organisms; many members are important primary producers in the ecosystems they inhabit. Their body plans are diverse and range from single flagellated or non-flagellated cells to colonies or filaments of cells. The class Chlorophyceae has been distinguished on the basis of ultrastructural morphology; molecular traits are also being used to classify taxa within the class.

Luis Fernández García · CC BY-SA 2.1 es · 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
- ChlorophytaPBDB
- Diet
- "photoautotroph"PBDB, for Chlorophyta
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Chlorophyta
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Chlorophyta
- Environment
- lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,marine,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Chlorophyta
Time the record covers
At least 1799 million years on record.
The record covers at least 1800 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2050 Mya to 0 Mya.
3,704 occurrences of Chlorophyceae on record, most of them in the Permian. 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
3,704 occurrences- Cambrianunder 1%
- Ordovician7%
- Silurian2%
- Devonian1%
- Carboniferous5%
- Permian16%
- Early Triassicunder 1%
- Middle Triassic3%
- Late Triassic6%
- Early Jurassicunder 1%
- Middle Jurassicunder 1%
- Late Jurassic4%
- Early Cretaceous15%
- Late Cretaceous6%
- Paleocene14%
- Eocene7%
- Oligoceneunder 1%
- Miocene1%
- Plioceneunder 1%
- Pleistocene4%
- Holoceneunder 1%
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
518 formations
- Polat Formation · Sultan Dagi Group219
- Sinjar Formation137
- Safetdara Formation87
- Changxing Formation85
- Nayband Formation75
- Mauddud Limestone Formation69
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The named rock units Chlorophyceae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 494 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,178 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Chlorophyceae and its relatives
PermianWhere Chlorophyceae and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.
Found in the same rock
2,836 taxa- Receptaculites59 sites
- Bryozoa38 sites
- Leiosphaeridia35 sites
- Cicatricosisporites dorogensis32 sites
- Laevigatosporites32 sites
- Leiotriletes32 sites
- Caryapollenites31 sites
- Deltoidospora31 sites
- Gleicheniidites31 sites
- Pediastrum31 sites
- Taxodium31 sites
- Triporopollenites31 sites
- Coniferales30 sites
- Ostracoda30 sites
- Thompsonipollis magnificus30 sites
- Casurinidites pulcher29 sites
- Divisisporites29 sites
- Liliacidites29 sites
- Margocolporites29 sites
- Osmundacidites29 sites
- Pinuspollenites29 sites
- Microreticulatisporites28 sites
- Tricolpopollenites28 sites
- Gastropoda27 sites
The Paleobiology Database records at least 1,122 sites for Chlorophyceae, 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
653 references- Taxonomic and Paelogeographic Approaches to the Dasyclad Algae in the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian)-Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Peritidal Carbonates of the Fele (YassÝbel) Area (Western Taurides, Turkey)219
- A study of biostratigraphy of Sinjar Formation in selected sections from northern Iraq116
- Brachiopods from the Cisuralian–Guadalupian of Darvaz, Tajikistan and implications for Permian stratigraphic correlations87
- Middle Cretaceous algal flora from the Mauddud Formation, Ratawi field, south Iraq69
- Recherches géologiques sur le Crétacé inférieur de l'Estremadura (Portugal)66
- Palaeocene reef complex of the Western Carpathians64
- Dasycladalean green algae and some problematic algae from the Upper Triassic of the Nayband Formation (northeast Iran)64
- Site U134451
- Algues calcaires de la zone de Resita-Moldova Noua (Carpathes méridionales, Roumanie)49
- Distribution of pollen and spores in a subsurface marine Wilcox (Paleocene-Eocene) section in southwest Louisiana47
- Dasycladalean algae and their depositional environments in the Sylhet Limestone Formation (lower-middle Eocene), Bengal Basin44
- Site U134341
Each of the 3,704 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. 641 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 Chlorophyceae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Luis Fernández García
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.1 es
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Chlorophyceae 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 itChlorophyta through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kützing 1843