Algae

"a scale like mark in the middle that is a dark brown color to it"While most of Utah's Cambrian biota is represented by fossils of animals, an important algal flora also exhisted at this time. Algae include a great diversity of photosynthetic autotrophs (organisms capable of producing their own food from sunlight), ranging from single- to multicellular forms. Some of the oldest well-preserved fossils of algae are known from the Middle Cambrian of Utah. These algae were likely important components of the Cambrian marine ecosystem.

Three species of algae have been described from the Cambrian of Utah and include:

  • Margaretia dorus Walcott, 1931
  • Marpolia spissa Walcott, 1919
  • Yuknessia simplex Walcott, 1919

Gallery of Algae

Note: Marks on all scale bars are centimeters (cm).

Margaretia dorus Walcott, 1931

a wavey scratch across a tan rock

KUMIP 127793. Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah. Figure 3.5 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

strands of dark grey across a grey rock with a circle pattern in-between strands

KUMIP 127810. Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 3.4 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a unique circle pattern that has eroded into a rock

KUMIP 127811 & 127812 (part, counterpart of same specimen). Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Not figured.

a grey rock with a small ridge in the middle and a wavy scratch that is diagonal across the rock

KUMIP 147911 (part, counterpart). Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 4.4 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a grey rock with a yellow stain going diagonal across the rock in both directions

KUMIP 204373. Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 3.1 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

grey rock with a mix of white and yellow line that stretches from top to middle of the rock then splits into two lines and goes to each corner of the rock

KUMIP 204374. Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 3.2 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a grey rock with a dark gray line in the corner of it
KUMIP 204376 & 204377 (part, counterpart). Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figures 4.2, 4.3 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

Marpolia spissa Walcott, 1919

a grey background with scattered grey marks at the bottom right of the screen and also a yellow stain at the top right

KUMIP 111764. Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah. Figure 1.2 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a yellow background with scratchy marks in the middle that looks like the top of a tree

KUMIP 111765. Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah. Figure 1.1 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a rock with a line eroded into the rock that leads to a scratchy triangle erosian

KUMIP 127798. Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah. Figure None in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a line in a rock that sprouts into many different lines like roots from a tree

KUMIP 127799. Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah. Figure 1.3 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a grey rock with two smudges in the middle that are a darker gray

KUMIP 204372 (part, counterpart). Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 1.4 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a rock with yellow stains in the middle that have lines coming out of them

KUMIP 241405. Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah.

Yuknessia simplex Walcott, 1919

a rock with a bunch of lines in the middle where the density of lines increases the farther in the middle you go

KUMIP 147909. Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 11.2 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a rock that has seventy percent of the rock covered in a grey area that has a abundance of darker gray lines

KUMIP 204378. Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 11.1 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a rock that has a distinct abundance of lines that sprout from the middle in three different directions

KUMIP 204380. Wheeler Formation, Drum Mountains, Millard County, Utah. Figure 11.4 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a yellow rock with a bunch of lines that are pointing to the right

KUMIP 204381. Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder County, Utah. Figure 11.5 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).

a grey rock that looks like it has white scratches in the middle stemming from the middle of the rock

KUMIP 204382. Wheeler Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah. Figure 11.6 in Conway Morris & Robison (1988).