Our paper about the dated phylogeny of the red algae Corallinaceae (Corallinales, Rodophita) is now on-line at Journal of Phycology.
A chronogram for the recently published Corallinaceae phylogeny, based on first-occurrence-time estimates from the fossil record, is presented in this paper. The calibration of the molecular clock of the genetic marker SSU entailed a separation of Corallinales from Hapalidiales in the Albian (Early Cretaceous, ~ 105 Ma). 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 Ma). This evolutionary 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 to 12 Ma). The most common reef corallinaceans (Hydrolithon, Porolithon, Harveylithon, “Pneophyllum” conicum, and subclades within Lithophylloideae) appeared in this interval in the Indo-Australian Archipelago.
This is a paper derived from Anja Rösler’s PhD Thesis
More Info:
Rösler, A., Perfectti, F., Peña, V., Aguirre, J. and Braga, J. C. (2017). Timing of the evolutionary history of Corallinaceae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta). J. Phycol. Accepted Manuscript. doi:10.1111/jpy.12520
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpy.12520