Dictyophycus

Dictyophycus Temporal range: Middle Cambrian, 520 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Phylum:	rhodophyta
Genus:	Dictyophycus
Species:	D. gracilis Walcott 1919

Dictyophycus is a putative red alga of the middle Cambrian Burgess shale.^[1] While alive, it formed leaf-like lobes about 25mm across. The fossils do not preserve the leaf-like membrane, so only the sturdier "skeleton" is known; these are usually broken and detached from their holdfast. 308 specimens of Dictyophycus are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.59% of the community.^[2]

References

1. ^ Briggs, D.E.G.; Erwin, D.H.; Collier, F.J. (1995), Fossils of the Burgess Shale, Washington: Smithsonian Inst Press, ISBN 156098659x, OCLC 231793738 
2. ^ Caron, J. -B.; Jackson, D. A. (October 2006). "Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale". PALAIOS 21 (5): 451–465. doi:10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R.  edit