Coralline News

Editor: Dr. Y.M. Chamberlain

Institute of Marine Sciences
 University of Portsmouth Ferry Road
Portsmouth PO4 9LY UK
Telephone: +44 1962 779427
Email: Y.Chamberlain@btinternet.com

No. 26 -------------------------------------- October 1999

Coralline algae 500 million years ago?

Dr Robert Riding, Department of Earth Sciences, Cardiff University, PO Box 914, Cardiff CF1 3YE, UK. Riding@cardiff.AC.UK

 The definite fossil record of corallines begins 145 million years ago near the start of the Cretaceous period. But this simple statement covers much uncertainty regarding diverse coralline-like fossils that are found in rocks both older and younger than 145 million year. These still poorly understood coralline-like fossils are a major challenge to research because they are the key to a deeper understanding of coralline history. A prime question concerns the oldest of these coralline-like fossils. These are much older than the Cretaceous. In fact they date back to the Ordovician and Silurian periods, 400-500 million years ago. Were there corallines then?

            Blackwell, Marak & Powell (1982) described sporangial compartments arranged in a sorus in late Ordovician (440 million year) Solenopora richmondensis and compared it with the extant coralline Sporolithon. Now a newly discovered fossil, Arenigiphyllum from the early Ordovician (490 million years) of Wales (Riding, Cope & Taylor 1998), not only predates Solenopora richmondensis but is also much more coralline-like in its vegetative anatomy and appears to be the oldest example of a well-preserved coralline-type alga so far known. Arenigiphyllum possesses dorsiventral dimerous tissue differentiation (a basal cell layer of unistratose basal filaments and an erect upper portion) and somewhat resembles the extant coralline Exilicrusta Chamberlain (Chamberlain 1992). However, Arenigiphyllum lacks reproductive structures and it is not yet possible to decide whether Arenigiphyllum could be placed in either the Sporolithaceae or Corallinaceae.

            In contrast to Arenigiphyllum, which has a thin (less than 1 mm thick) prostrate thallus and upward curving elongate filaments, it now appears that Solenopora richmondensis may be part of a plexus of somewhat younger sporolithacean-like algae with radial monomerous or diffuse thallus organization, and tetrasporangia arranged in sori. These include mid-late Ordovician (440-460 million years) Petrophyton kiaeri Høeg, but are best known in the Silurian (425 million years) where they have been named the Craticulaceae. Craticula (basionym Solenopora gotlandica Rothpletz, 1908) Brooke & Riding (Brooke and Riding 1998) is locally common in the mid-Silurian of Gotland (Sweden) and Wales and possesses small cells, radial monomerous thallus organization, trichocytes, and sporangia arranged in irregular sori. It is closely resembles extant Sporolithon Heydrich.

            The Craticulaceae is currently placed in the order Corallinales. The apparent long gap in the fossil record between Silurian Craticula and Cretaceous Sporolithon favours separation of these genera at family level, but future work may show that the Craticulaceae is a junior synonym of the Sporolithaceae. Recognition of Ordovician and Silurian sporolithaceans, and Arenigiphyllum, extends the earliest record of the Corallinales from the geologically relatively young Cretaceous to the much older Silurian and Ordovician. Corallines do really have old representatives.

References

Blackwell, W.H., Marak, J.H., and Powell, M.J. 1982. The identity and reproductive structures of a misplaced Solenopora (Rhodophycophyta) from the Ordovician of southwestern Ohio and eastern Indiana. Journal of Phycology 18: 477-482.

Brooke, C. and Riding, R. 1998. Ordovician and Silurian coralline red algae. Lethaia 31: 185-195.

Chamberlain, Y.M. 1992. Observations on two melobesioid crustose coralline red algal species from the British Isles: Exilicrusta parva, a new genus and species, and Lithothamnion sonderi Hauck. British Phycological Journal 27: 185-201.

Riding, R., Cope, J.C.W., and Taylor, P.D. 1998. A coralline-like red alga from the Lower Ordovician of Wales. Palaeontology 41: 1069-1076.

Publications

A good crop of palaeontological papers this time, mainly from palaeontologists in Italy and Wales. There are further sequencing results from Craig Bailey (1), three papers about ‘parasites’ in the widest sense (6, 8, 16), extensive publications on Indian (12), Russian (15) and Japanese (24) algal floras including the Corallinales, and a number of ecological papers (9, 10, 11, 14. 17, 18).

1] Bailey, J.C. 1999. Phylogenetic positions of Lithophyllum incrustans and Titanoderma pustulatum (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta) based on 18S rRNA gene sequence analyses, with a revised classification of the Lithophylloideae. Phycologia 38: 208-216.

2] Bassi, D. 1998. Coralline red algae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) from the Upper Eocene Calcare di Nago (Lake Garda, Northern Italy). Annali dell’Università di Ferrara, 7, supplement: 5-51.

3] Basso, D. 1997. Deep rhodolith distribution in the Pontian Islands, Italy: a model for the paleoecology of a temperate sea. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 137: 173-187.

4] Basso, D., Fravega, P., Piazza, M. & Vanucci, G. 1998. Revision and re-documentation of M. Airoldi’s species of Mesophyllum from the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (NW Italy). Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 104: 85-94.

5] Basso, D., Fravega, P., Piazza, M. & Vannucci, G. 1998. Biostratigraphic, paleogeographic and paleontological implications in the taxonomic review of Corallinaceae. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei ser.9, 9: 201-211.

6] Broadwater, S.T. & LaPointe, E.A. 1997. Parasitic interactions and vegetative ultrastructure of Choreonema thuretii (Corallinales, Rhodophyta). Journal of Phycology, 33: 396-407.

7] Brooke, C. & Riding, R. 1998. Ordovician and Silurian coralline algae. Lethaia, 31: 185-195.

8] Chamberlain, Y.M. 1999. The occurrence of Ezo epiyessoense Adey, Masaki & Akioka (Rhodophyta, Corallinaceae) in England, with a summary of parasitism and endophytism in nongeniculate Corallinaceae. Cryptogamie, Algologie 20: 155-165.

 9] Cormaci, M., Lanfranco, E., Borg, J.A., Buttigieg, S., Furnari, G., Micallef, S.A., Pizzuto, F., Scammacca, B. & Serio, D. 1997. Contribution to the knowledge of benthic marine algae on rocky substrata of the Maltese Islands (Mediterranean Sea). Botanica Marina, 40: 203-215.

10] Crump, R.G., Morley, H.S. & Williams, A.D. 1999. West Angle Bay, a case study. Littoral monitoring of permanent quadrats before and after the Sea Empress oil spill. Field Studies, 9: 497-511.

11] Daume, S., Brand-Gardner, S. &  Woelkerling, W.J. 1999. Community structure of nongeniculate coralline red algae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) in three boulder habitats in southern Australia. Phycologia, 38: 138-148.

12] Desikachary, T.V., Krishnamurthy, V. & Balakrishnan, M.S. 1998.  Rhodophyta, Vol. II, Part B. pp.359. [This part of the Indian marine algae includes the Corallinales].

13] Fravega, P., Giammarino, S., Piazza, M. & Vanucci, G. 1997. The rhodolith pavement of the Punta Guitja section, Lampedusa Formation (Upper Miocene-Island of lampedusa, Pelagian Block). Preliminary note. Bolletino della Società Paleontologia Italiana 36: 413-416.

14] Hall-Spencer, J. 1999. Maerl habitats under threat. Marine Conservation 4(5): 15.

15] Klochkova, N.G. & Berezovskaya, V.A. 1997. The Seaweeds of Kamchatska’s Shelf. Biology, distribution, chemical composition. Vladivostok: Dalnauka. pp.153.

16] Littler, M.M. & Littler, D.S. 1998. An undescribed fungal pathogen of reef-forming crustose coralline algae discovered in American Samoa. Coral Reefs 17: 144.

17] Marrack, L. 1998. The relationship between water motion and rhodolith movement in the southwestern Gulf of California. http://color.mlml.calstate.edu/www/groups/phyc/marrack.htm

18] Morcom, N.F., Ward, S.A. & Woelkerling, Wm J. 1998. Cover estimates of epiphytic coralline algae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta): Braun-Blanquet VS Computer Image Analysis. Cryptogamie, Algologie, 19: 303-309.

19] Piazza, M. 1998. Occurrence of Phymatolithon calcareum (Pallas) Adey & McKibbin in the late Miocene of northwestern Italy. Bolletine della Società Paleontologica Italiana 36: 417-419.

20] Riding, R., Cope, C.W. & Taylor, P.D. 1998. A coralline-like red alga from the Lower Ordovician of Wales. Palaeontology, 41: 1069-1076.

21] Stockar, R. 1997. Contributo alla conoscenza dell’Eocene nel Canton Ticino: l’associazione ad Alghe calcaree fossili di Prella (Mendrisiotto). Bolletino della Società ticinese di Scienze naturali 85: 23-46.

22] Vannucci, G., Piazza, M., Fravega, P. & Abate, C. 1996. Litostratigrafia e paleoecologia di successioni a rodolitidella “Pietra da Cantoni” (Monferrato Orientale, Italia Nord-Occidentale).

23] Vannucci, G., Piazza, M., Pastorina, P. & Fravega, P. 1997. Le facies a coralli coloniale e rodoficee calcaree di alcune sezione basali della formazione di molare (Oligocene del Bacino terziario del Piemonte, Italia Nord-Occidentale).  Atti della Società Toscana Scienze naturale Memorie, Serie A 104: 13-39.

24] Yoshida, T. 1998. Marine Algae of Japan. Uchida Rokakuho. pp. 1248. Corallinales by M.Baba,  ISBN 4-7536-4049-3.

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Derek Keats,
updated 02/01/01