Misplaced Pages

Bangiomorpha Temporal range: 1047 Ma +13/–17 Ma Pha. Proterozoic Archean Had. ↓
Scientific classification
Clade:	Archaeplastida
Division:	Rhodophyta
Class:	Bangiophyceae
Order:	Bangiales
Family:	Bangiaceae
Genus:	†Bangiomorpha N.J.Butterfield
Species:	†B. pubescens
Binomial name
†Bangiomorpha pubescens N.J.Butterfield

Bangiomorpha pubescens is a species of red algae in the order Bangiales. It is the first known sexually reproducing organism. A multicellular fossil of Bangiomorpha pubescens was recovered from the Hunting Formation in Somerset Island, Canada that strongly resembles the modern red alga Bangia despite occurring in rocks dating to 1,047 million years ago, during the Stenian period. This species is the oldest example of an organism belonging to an extant phylum. The fossil includes differentiated reproductive cells that are the oldest evidence of sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction increased genetic variation, which led to an increased rate of evolution and the diversification of eukaryotes.

References

1. Butterfield, Nicholas J. (2000). "Bangiomorpha pubescens n. gen., n. sp.: implications for the evolution of sex, multicellularity, and the Mesoproterozoic/Neoproterozoic radiation of eukaryotes". Paleobiology. 26 (3): 386–404. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2000)026<0386:BPNGNS>2.0.CO;2.
2. Gibson, Timothy M; Shih, Patrick M; Cumming, Vivien M; Fischer, Woodward W; Crockford, Peter W; Hodgskiss, Malcolm S.W; Wörndle, Sarah; Creaser, Robert A; Rainbird, Robert H; Skulski, Thomas M; Halverson, Galen P (2017). "Precise age of Bangiomorpha pubescens dates the origin of eukaryotic photosynthesis" (PDF). Geology. 46 (2): 135–138. doi:10.1130/G39829.1.

This Rhodophyta-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Bangiophyceae
• Red algae genera
• Fossil taxa described in 2000
• Monotypic algae genera
• Mesoproterozoic
• Rhodophyta stubs