Dictyocha

Dictyocha is a genus of silicoflagellates, marine photosynthetic unicellular protists that take the form of either flagellates or axopodial amoebae. Described by Ehrenberg in 1837, Dictyocha contains many important species of the marine phytoplankton, some of them responsible for algal blooms that are toxic to fish.

Dictyocha

Minami Himemiya · 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
DictyochaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Chrysophyceae
Life habit
planktonicPBDB, for Chrysophyceae
Motility
passively mobilePBDB, for Chrysophyceae

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 56 Mya to 290 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 117 occurrencesPaleocene — about 2 of 117 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 117 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 117 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 62 of 117 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 117 occurrencesPleistocene — about 40 of 117 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 11 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 10 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 12 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 12 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 11 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 9 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 38 occurrences56 Mya290 ka67 Mya0 Mya

117 occurrences of Dictyocha on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

117 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

4 formations

Pungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WSobral — 64.25°S, 56.75°WRosarito Beach — 32.12°N, 116.80°WKellogg — 37.87°N, 121.75°W

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The named rock units Dictyocha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 109 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dictyocha and its relatives

Miocene

Where Dictyocha and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

369 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 104 sites for Dictyocha, 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

16 references

Each of the 117 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. 4 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 Dictyocha

Credit
Minami Himemiya
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itDictyochaceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ehrenberg 1837