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Skeletonella nelsoniae gen. et sp. nov., representing a new tribe of marine macroalgae, the Skeletonelleae (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta)
Millar, A. J. K.; De Clerck, O. (2007). Skeletonella nelsoniae gen. et sp. nov., representing a new tribe of marine macroalgae, the Skeletonelleae (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta). Phycologia 46(1): 63-73. dx.doi.org/10.2216/06-21.1
In: Phycologia. International Phycological Society: Odense. ISSN 0031-8884; e-ISSN 2330-2968, more
Peer reviewed article  

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Keywords
    Ceramiaceae Dumortier, 1822 [WoRMS]; Rhodophyta [WoRMS]; Skeletonella nelsoniae A.Millar & De Clerck, 2007 [WoRMS]; Skeletonelleae A.J.K.Millar & O.De Clerck, 2007 [WoRMS]
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    Skeletonella nelsoniae gen. et sp. nov.; Skeletonelleae trib. nov; Rhodophyta; Ceramiaceae; Marine macroalgae

Authors  Top 
  • Millar, A. J. K.
  • De Clerck, O., more

Abstract
    Skeletonella nelsoniae gen. et sp. nov. is described from sublittoral habitats at Three Kings Islands (34°09'S, 172°10'E) off the northern cape of New Zealand. Plants are diminutive, reaching a height of only 2.5 mm, and consist of erect alternately branched, monosiphonous, uniseriate axes that bear two mostly simple, equal and opposite, distichously arranged determinate lateral branches from each axial cell. Laterals are cut off from axial cells by a pronounced concavo-convex septum. Typical protrusions that precede cell division are absent, and the newly formed lateral branch initial sits nearly entirely within the original contour of the axial cell. Procarps are borne on the basal cell of a two-celled determinate lateral and consist of a four-celled carpogonial branch. The determinate lateral opposite the two-celled lateral, which bears the carpogonium, is suppressed and is never more than one cell long. After fertilization, the auxiliary cell is cut off from the supporting cell and then divides once into a foot cell and a gonimoblast initial. At this stage involucral branchlets are produced de novo from the hypogenous cell to enclose the maturing carposporophyte. Spermatangial heads are transformed from the distal cells of determinate laterals and each fertile axial cell divides longitudinally to form a whorl of four periaxial cells, which in turn, divide twice to form two spermatangial mother cells each bearing one to two spermatangia. This combination of features is shown to be unique in the family Ceramiaceae, and thus the new tribe Skeletonelleae is proposed.

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