Dictyophycus Temporal range: Middle Cambrian,
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Genus: | Dictyophycus
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Species: | D. gracilis
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Binomial name | |
Dictyophycus gracilis Walcott 1919
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Dictyophycus is a putative red alga of the middle Cambrian Burgess shale.[1] While alive, it formed leaf-like lobes about 25mm across. The fossils do not preserve the leaf-like membrane, so only the sturdier "skeleton" is known; these are usually broken and detached from their holdfast. 308 specimens of Dictyophycus are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.59% of the community.[2]