Palaeoaplysina

Palaeoaplysina is a genus of tabular, calcified fossils that are a component of many Late Palaeozoic reefs.[1] The fossil acted as a baffle to trap sediment. Historically interpreted as a sponge or hydrozoan,[2] recent studies are converging to its classification in the coralline stem group, placing it among the red algae.[1]

Palaeoaplysina
Temporal range: Upper Carboniferous –Lower Permian
Scientific classification
(unranked): Archaeplastida
Division: Rhodophyta
Class: Florideophyceae
Stem group: Corallinales
Order: †Archaeolithophyllales (?)
Family: †Palaeoaplysinaceae
Genus: †Palaeoaplysina

Morphology

The thalloid organism had a series of internal canals opening on one side of the body (presumably the upper side), and volcano-like protuberances on that same side inviting comparison to filter-feeding organisms. On the other hand, it seems to have had a calcified cellular make up akin to that of the coralline reds, suggesting that it was either a stem-group coralline or a coralline-encrusted filter feeder.[3]

Distribution

The organism is widespread in the tropical and near-tropical margin of the Laurentian continent (45–15°N), but is not found elsewhere.[4] Its oldest reported occurrence is Middle Pennsylvanian (mid- to late Moscovian)[5] and youngest is the late Sakmarian.[3] It acts as an important reservoir rock for oil deposits.[3]

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See also

References
  1. K. D. Anderson; B. Beauchamp (2011). Development of a Palaeoaplysina Reef Complex, Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic (PDF). Recovery – 2011 CSPG CSEG CWLS Convention 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-06-14.
  2. Davies, G. R.; Nassichuk, W. W. (1973). "The Hydrozoan? Palaeoaplysina from the Upper Paleozoic of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada". Journal of Paleontology. 47 (2): 251–265. JSTOR 1302890.
  3. Kaylee Anderson, Benoit Beauchamp (2010). The Origin and Ecology of Late Paleozoic Palaeoaplysina in Arctic Canada: An Aberrant Ancestral Coralline Algae (?) that Grew at a Time of High Atmospheric CO
    2    . GeoCanada. Archived from the original on 2011-03-12. Retrieved 2011-06-14.
  4. Vachard, D.; Kabanov, P. (2007). "Palaeoaplysinella gen. Nov. And Likinia Ivanova and Ilkhovskii, 1973 emend., from the type Moscovian (Russia) and the algal affinities of the ancestral palaeoaplysinaceae n. Comb". Geobios. 40 (6): 849–860. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2007.01.006.
  5. Ritter, Scott M.; Morris, Thomas H. (August 1997). "Oldest and Lowest Latitudinal Occurrence of Palaeoaplysina: Middle Pennsylvanian Ely Limestone, Burbank Hills, Utah". Palaios. 12 (4): 397. doi:10.2307/3515339. JSTOR 3515339. Retrieved 11 November 2014.


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