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A green alga of the genus Coelastrum Naegeli from the sediments of the Tertiary Lake Messel

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Abstract

A chlorococcal alga of the genus Coelastrum is firstly described from the sediments of the Eocene Lake Messel on the basis of morphological characters and fluorescence microscopy. The great abundance of this alga in massive parts of the stratigraphic section shows its significance for the Messel ecosystem in Eocene times, besides other known algae from this locality. The very favourable conditions of fossilisation allow the identification of various generational stages of this alga. Interestingly, the best preserved specimens were found in small fish coprolites (although we interpret Coelastrum sp. as by-catch and not an important source of food for fish).

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Acknowledgements

Our hearty thanks for their valuable help in the form of advice concerning improvements, corrections and completion of our work as well as for the technical preparation of the material go to numerous colleagues of which we can only name a few: Dr. Regina Albert, Frankfurt, Dr. Andreas Clausing, Halle (Saale), Dr. Vlasta Jankovská, Institute of Botany AS CR, Department of Vegetation Ecology, Brno Czech Republic, Prof. Dr. Jiri Komárek, Institute of Botany AS CR, Centrum for Algology, Trebon, Czech Republic, Dr. Maike Lorenz, collection of algae cultures (SAG), University Göttingen, Dr. Dieter Mollenhauer, Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Dr. Rainer Petschick, Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Marie-Louise Tritz, Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt/Main Germany, Dr. Stefan Schaal, Dr. Sonja Wedmann, Michael Ackermann, Bruno Behr, Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt/Main, and the Excavation Team from Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt for their help, patience and understanding in providing and completing the fossil samples. We are very grateful to the reviewers, Dr. Vlasta Jankovská, Institute of Botany AS CR, Brno, Czech Republic, and Dr. Eberhard Hegewald, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institut für Bio- und Geowissenschaften, Pflanzenwissenschaften, for their very valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Paläoanthropologie und Messelforschung, Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Gotthard Richter

  2. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Wolfgang Schiller

  3. Bereich Paläontologie, Steinmann-Institut der Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Sven Baszio

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  1. Gotthard Richter
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  2. Wolfgang Schiller
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  3. Sven Baszio
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Correspondence to Sven Baszio.

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Richter, G., Schiller, W. & Baszio, S. A green alga of the genus Coelastrum Naegeli from the sediments of the Tertiary Lake Messel. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 93, 285–298 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-012-0105-5

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