Discovery of Triassic phylloid algae: possible links with the Paleozoic.

Triassic phylloid algae have recently been discovered in a reef in the southern Yukon. These plate-like algae are the primary frame builders in a few small patches in the upper section of the reef, where they are associated with fossils and sedimentary structures suggesting deposition in very shallow water. A vague, porous microstructure in some of the algae suggests affinities with Paleozoic codiacean phylloid algae, but preservation is too poor to permit definite classification. Nevertheless, the indication that phylloid algae did not become extinct at the end of the Paleozoic, as formerly supposed, increases the possibility of finding missing evolutionary links between Paleozoic phylloid algae and their modern counterparts.-Author