title: A bangiophyte red alga from the Proterozoic of arctic Canada.
abstract: Silicified peritidal carbonate rocks of the 1250- to 750-million-year-old Hunting Formation, Somerset Island, arctic Canada, contain fossils of well-preserved bangiophyte red algae.  Morphological details, especially the presence of multiseriate filaments composed of radially arranged wedge-shaped cells derived by longitudinal divisions from disc-shaped cells in uniseriate filaments, indicate that the fossils are related to extant species in the genus Bangia.  Such taxonomic resolution distinguishes these fossils from other pre-Ediacaran eukaryotes and contributes to growing evidence that multicellular algae diversified well before the Ediacaran radiation of large animals.
authors.affiliation: Botanical Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Butterfield
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Knoll
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Swett
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D002170:Canada; D005580:Fossils; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D005844:Geology; D010163:Paleontology; D000461:Rhodophyta / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology