Spirogyra

Spirogyra is a genus of filamentous charophyte green algae of the family Spirogyraceae, named for the helical or spiral arrangement of the chloroplasts that is characteristic of the genus. Spirogyra species, of which there are more than 500, are commonly found in freshwater habitats. Spirogyra measures approximately 10 to 150 micrometres in width and may grow to several centimetres in length.

Spirogyra

Wiedehopf20 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
ZygnemataceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Algae

Time the record covers

At least 60 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 129 ka.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 16 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 16 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 16 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 16 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 16 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 16 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–9.8 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence61.66 Mya774 ka74 Mya0 Mya

16 occurrences of Spirogyra 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

16 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

3 formations

Cullen — 53.00°S, 68.67°WCullen — 52.87°S, 68.41°WLa Colonia — 42.99°S, 67.67°WYaw — 23.23°N, 94.25°E

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The named rock units Spirogyra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Spirogyra and its relatives

Miocene

Where Spirogyra and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

268 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Spirogyra, 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

8 references

Each of the 16 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. 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 Spirogyra

Credit
Wiedehopf20
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Spirogyra 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 itZygnemataceae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Link 1820