The oldest red algae
Fossils in Indian rock preserve cell interiors so well that chloroplasts are visible.
- When
- Known to
- ± 50 million years
- Era
- Mesoproterozoic, Proterozoic
Thread-like and lobed fossils from 1.6-billion-year-old Indian phosphorites retain three-dimensional cellular and subcellular structure, including regularly arranged internal bodies interpreted as chloroplasts. They are argued to be crown-group red algae, which would make them the oldest plant-like organisms known and push the eukaryotic tree's major branches far back into the Mesoproterozoic.