Timing of the evolutionary history of Corallinaceae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta)

Abstract

The temporal dimension of the most recent Corallinaceae (order Corallinales) phylogeny was presented here, based on first occurrence time estimates from the fossil record. Calibration of the molecular clock of the genetic marker SSU entailed a separation of Corallinales from Hapalidiales in the Albian (Early Cretaceous ~105 mya). Neither the calibration nor the fossil record resolved the succession of appearance of the first three emerging subfamilies: Mastophoroideae, Corallinoideae, and Neogoniolithoideae. The development of the tetra/bisporangial conceptacle roofs by filaments surrounding and interspersed among the sporangial initials was an evolutionary novelty emerging at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (~66 mya). This novelty was shared by the subfamilies Hydrolithoideae, Metagoniolithoideae, and Lithophylloideae, which diverged in the early Paleogene. Subclades within the Metagoniolithoideae and Lithophylloideae diversified in the late Oligocene-middle Miocene (~28-12 mya). The most common reef corallinaceans (Hydrolithon, Porolithon, Harveylithon, "Pneophyllum" conicum, and subclades within Lithophylloideae) appeared in this interval in the Indo-Australian Archipelago.

Mediterranean Lithophyllum stictiforme (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) is a genetically diverse species complex: implications for species circumscription, biogeography and conservation of coralligenous habitats

“…In terms of evolutionary origin, a recent time‐calibrated SSU rDNA phylogeny indicates that the ancestor of the Lithophyllum stictiforme lineage and its sister lineage (formed by Lithophyllum incrustans and L. dentatum ), occurred between 18 and 8 mya (Rösler et al. ). This period corresponds to a shift in the composition of the Mediterranean biota, with the decrease of the Tethyan biogeographic affinities after the Burdigalian closure of the eastern connection with the Indo‐Pacific (~19 mya).…”

Genomics reveals abundant speciation in the coral reef building alga Porolithon onkodes (Corallinales, Rhodophyta)

“…Rösler et al. () proposed the Indo‐Australian archipelago as the center of origin of coral reef corallines. Our data support that it also was the center of diversification of these smooth, encrusting Porolithon species.…”

Coralline red algae from the Silurian of Gotland indicate that the order Corallinales (Corallinophycidae, Rhodophyta) is much older than previously thought

“…; Rösler et al . , ). Species of the Corallinales are characterized by the occurrence of uniporate tetrasporangial conceptacles rather than multiporate conceptacles or calcified sporangial compartments, which respectively occur in the Hapalidiales (Nelson et al .…”

“…() and Rösler et al . (, ), all of whom place all taxa/lineages/groups into a single family, the Corallinaceae. This contrasts with Athanasiadis (, p. 292) and Townsend & Huisman (, pp.…”

“…; Rösler et al . ; Yang et al . ), about 15–30 myr after the oldest known unequivocal records of taxa of Sporolithaceae (Tomás et al .…”