Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Thoracosphaera heimii (Lohmann) Kamptner Is a Dinophyte: Observations on Its Morphology and Life Cycle

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Marine Micropaleontology

ISSN

0377-8398

Publication Date

6-1982

Abstract

Thirty clones of Thoracosphaera heimii (Lohmann) Kamptner have been isolated and cultured from oceanic waters of the western North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Observations on the life cycle and morphology of one clone isolated from the Sargasso Sea are reported herein. The calcareous cell wall is present in the coccoid, vegetative life phase. Reproduction is accomplished by the formation of transitory aplanospore or planospore stages or occasionally by binary fission of weakly calcified cells. The planospore is non-thecate and Gymnodinium-like with an undulating transverse flagellum and a whip-like longitudinal flagellum. All life stages possess chloroplasts and a nucleus with continually condensed chromosomes. The planospore morphology and the dinocaryotic nucleus demonstrate that T. heimii is a dinophyte and not a coccolithophorid. The taxonomic affinity and classification of T. heimii within the Dinophyceae is discussed and a new order Thoracosphaerales Tangen, ord. nov. is proposed for primarily coccoid marine dinoflagellates that possess a calcified cell wall in the vegetative life phase.

DOI

10.1016/0377-8398(82)90002-0

Volume

7

Issue

3

First Page

193

Last Page

212

Comments

©1982 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company

Additional Comments

NSF grant #s: OCE 79-03621, OCE 80-08222

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