Cited by 296Paleontology and Stratigraphy of FossilsProtist diversity and phylogenyPaleontology and Evolutionary Biology

Three-dimensional preservation of cellular and subcellular structures suggests 1.6 billion-year-old crown-group red algae

Open access
Bengtson, Stefan, Sallstedt, Therese, Belivanova, Veneta, Whitehouse, Martin·2017·PLOS Biology

Abstract

The ~1.6 Ga Tirohan Dolomite of the Lower Vindhyan in central India contains phosphatized stromatolitic microbialites. We report from there uniquely well-preserved fossils interpreted as probable crown-group rhodophytes (red algae). The filamentous form Rafatazmia chitrakootensis n. gen, n. sp. has uniserial rows of large cells and grows through diffusely distributed septation. Each cell has a centrally suspended, conspicuous rhomboidal disk interpreted as a pyrenoid. The septa between the cells have central structures that may represent pit connections and pit plugs. Another filamentous form, Denaricion mendax n. gen., n. sp., has coin-like cells reminiscent of those in large sulfur-oxidizing bacteria but much more recalcitrant than the liquid-vacuole-filled cells of the latter. There are also resemblances with oscillatoriacean cyanobacteria, although cell volumes in the latter are much smaller. The wider affinities of Denaricion are uncertain. Ramathallus lobatus n. gen., n. sp. is a lobate sessile alga with pseudoparenchymatous thallus, "cell fountains," and apical growth, suggesting florideophycean affinity. If these inferences are correct, Rafatazmia and Ramathallus represent crown-group multicellular rhodophytes, antedating the oldest previously accepted red alga in the fossil record by about 400 million years.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pbio.2000735

Cites

129 of 129 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

4 of the 133 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 15

  1. [4]Taylor TN, Krings M, Taylor EL. Fossil Fungi. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2015.
  2. [14]Bhattacharya D, Yoon HS, Hedges SB, Hackett JD. Eukaryotes (Eukaryota) In: Hedges SB, Kumar S, editors. The Timetree of Life. Oxford: Oxford UP; 2009 p. 116– 20.
  3. [37]Yan Y-z, Liu Z-l. Tuanshanzian macroscopic algae of 1700 Ma B.P. from Changcheng System of Jixian, China. Acta Palaeontol Sin. 1997; 36(1): 18– 41.
  4. [46]Butterfield NJ. Bangiomorpha pubescens n.gen., n.sp.: implications for the evolution of sex, multicellularity, and the Mesoproterozoic/Neoproterozoic radiation of eukaryotes. Paleobiology. 2000; 26(3): 386– 404.
  5. [56]Joshi D, Azmi RJ, Srivastava SS. Earliest Cambrian calcareous skeletal algae from Tirohan Dolomite, Chitrakoot, Central India: a new age constraint for the Lower Vindhyan. Gondwana Geol Mag. 2006; 21(2): 73– 82.
  6. [88]Graham LE, Graham JM, Wilcox LW, Cook ME. Algae. 3rd Ed ed. Madison WI: LJLM Press; 2016 595 pp.
  7. [93]Müller KM, Lynch MDJ, Sheath RG. Bangiophytes: from one class to six; where do we go from here? Moving the bangiophytes into the genomic age In: Seckbach J, Chapman DJ, editors. Red Algae in the Genomic Age. Dordrecht: Springer; 2010 p. 243– 59.
  8. [95]Vis ML, Sheath RG. Distribution and systematics of Chroodactylon and Kyliniella (Porphyridiales, Rhodophyta) from North American streams. Japanese Journal of Phycology. 1993; 41: 237– 41.
  9. [108]Azmi RJ, Joshi D, Tiwari BN, Joshi MN, Srivastava SS. A synoptic view on the current discordant geo- and biochronological ages of the Vindhyan Supergroup, central India. Himal Geol. 2008; 29(2): 177– 91.
  10. [114]Rasmussen B, Bose PK, Sarkar S, Banerjee S, Fletcher IR, McNaughton NJ. 1.6 Ga U-Pb zircon age for the Chorhat Sandstone, lower Vindhyan, India: Possible implications for early evolution of animals. Geology. 2002; 30(2): 103– 6.
  11. [115]Ray JS, Martin MW, Veizer J, Bowring SA. U-Pb zircon dating and Sr isotope systematics of the Vindhyan Supergroup, India. Geology. 2002; 30(2): 131– 4.
  12. [116]Bansal M, Vijan AR, Mahar YS, Ghosh N, Krishna PS, Prabhy BN. Rb–Sr dating of Lower Vindhyan sediments from Son Valley, M. P., India. Indian Mineralogist. 1999; 33: 1– 9.
  13. [118]Kumar A, Gopalan K, Rajagopalan G. Age of the Lower Vindhyan sediments, Central India. Curr Sci. 2001; 81(7): 806– 9.
  14. [121]Banerjee DM, Frank W. Preliminary 40Ar/39Ar dates of porcellanite and detrital mica from the Vindhyan of central India. Workshop on Vindhyan Stratigraphy and Palaeobiology—Volume of Abstracts. Lucknow: University of Lucknow; 1999. p. 5.
  15. [131]Levinton J, Dubb L, Wray GA. Simulations of evolutionary radiations and their application to understanding the probability of a Cambrian explosion. J Paleontol. 2004; 78(1): 31– 8.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bengtson, S., Sallstedt, T., Belivanova, V., & Whitehouse, M.
Affiliations
University of Southern Denmark (DK)
Corresponding author
  • Bengtson, Stefan
  • Sallstedt, Therese
  • Belivanova, Veneta
  • Whitehouse, Martin
Venue
PLOS Biology
Published
2017-03-14
Volume
15
Issue
3
Pages
e2000735
ISSN
  • 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-7885
OpenAlex
W2602119753
Cited by
284
References
133
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 16
FWCI
18.52
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Diva portal (Dalarna University Library) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • DORA PSI (Paul Scherrer Institute) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Paul Scherrer Institut (20070197, 20100167, 20080872)
  • Vetenskapsrådet (2010-03929, 2013-04290)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protist diversity and phylogeny
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
Keywords
red algae, phosphatization, pyrenoid, pit connections, fossil algae, Precambrian, Florideophyceae, cyanobacteria, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria
MeSH terms
Rhodophyta, Fossils, India, Phylogeny, Radiometry, Subcellular Fractions, Time Factors, Geologic Sediments, Geological Phenomena

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review