A review of rare, poorly known, and morphologically problematic extant marine organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst taxa of the orders Gymnodiniales and Peridiniales from the Northern Hemisphere

Abstract

Dinoflagellates are a major component of the modern plankton. Of the 2192 species of marine free-living dinoflagellates presently described, an increasing number are being shown to produce resting cysts (probably hypnozygotes) within their life cycle. With rare exception, only the resting cysts fossilize, so they are of central importance in tracing the history of dinoflagellates through geological time. Cysts of many of the more common dinoflagellate species have distinctive morphologies allowing their geographic and stratigraphic occurrences to be traced. An everincreasing number of taxa are also being shown to produce distinctive and geologically preservable cysts, potentially enhancing our knowledge of the diverse representation of dinoflagellates through time. Here the organic-walled cysts of 73 rare, poorly known or morphologically problematic marine dinoflagellate cyst species belonging to the orders Gymnodiniales (nine species) and Peridiniales (64 species) are reviewed, described and illustrated, and their stratigraphic ranges assessed. The names Echinidinium aculeatum and Echinidinium transparantum are validated.