Acritarch

Acritarchs
	A supposed Ediacaran embryo contained within an acritarch from the Doushantuo Formation
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	incertae sedis
(unranked):	†; Evitt, 1963
Synonyms
	Hystrichospheres p.p.;

Acritarchs (from Greek achritos 'uncertain' and arché 'origin')^[2] are organic microfossils, known from the Precambrian to the present. The classification is a catch all term used to refer to any organic microfossils that cannot be assigned to other groups. Their diversity reflects major ecological events such as the appearance of predation and the Cambrian explosion. Many acritarchs likely represent resting cysts of single-celled marine phytoplanktonic algae, similar to those produced by living dinoflagellates.^[3]

^ Cunningham, John A.; Vargas, Kelly; Yin, Zongjun; Bengtson, Stefan; Donoghue, Philip C. J. (2017). "The Weng'an Biota (Doushantuo Formation): An Ediacaran window on soft-bodied and multicellular microorganisms". Journal of the Geological Society. 174 (5): 793–802. Bibcode:2017JGSoc.174..793C. doi:10.1144/jgs2016-142. hdl:1983/d874148a-f20e-498a-97d2-379b3feaa18a.
^ Jain, Sreepat (2020). "Acritarchs". Fundamentals of Invertebrate Palaeontology. Springer Geology. New Delhi: Springer. pp. 27–42. doi:10.1007/978-81-322-3962-8_2. ISBN 978-81-322-3960-4.
^ Servais, Thomas; Perrier, Vincent; Danelian, Taniel; Klug, Christian; Martin, Ronald; Munnecke, Axel; Nowak, Hendrik; Nützel, Alexander; Vandenbroucke, Thijs R.A.; Williams, Mark; Rasmussen, Christian M.Ø. (September 2016). "The onset of the 'Ordovician Plankton Revolution' in the late Cambrian". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 458: 12–28. Bibcode:2016PPP...458...12S. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.11.003. ISSN 0031-0182.

[1] Cunningham, John A.; Vargas, Kelly; Yin, Zongjun; Bengtson, Stefan; Donoghue, Philip C. J. (2017). "The Weng'an Biota (Doushantuo Formation): An Ediacaran window on soft-bodied and multicellular microorganisms". Journal of the Geological Society. 174 (5): 793–802. Bibcode:2017JGSoc.174..793C. doi:10.1144/jgs2016-142. hdl:1983/d874148a-f20e-498a-97d2-379b3feaa18a.

[2] Jain, Sreepat (2020). "Acritarchs". Fundamentals of Invertebrate Palaeontology. Springer Geology. New Delhi: Springer. pp. 27–42. doi:10.1007/978-81-322-3962-8_2. ISBN 978-81-322-3960-4.

[3] Servais, Thomas; Perrier, Vincent; Danelian, Taniel; Klug, Christian; Martin, Ronald; Munnecke, Axel; Nowak, Hendrik; Nützel, Alexander; Vandenbroucke, Thijs R.A.; Williams, Mark; Rasmussen, Christian M.Ø. (September 2016). "The onset of the 'Ordovician Plankton Revolution' in the late Cambrian". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 458: 12–28. Bibcode:2016PPP...458...12S. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.11.003. ISSN 0031-0182.

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