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American Zoologist 1969 9(3):747-751; doi:10.1093/icb/9.3.747
© 1969 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Distribution, Taxonomy, and Boring Patterns of Marine Endolithic Algae

STJEPKO GOIUBIC
Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven Haven, Connecticut 06520

Penetration of calcareous substrates by algae involves different microenvironments. Endolithic algae include two different life forms: (1) algae colonizing existing spaces within the rock, and (2) algae actively boring within the carbonate substrate.

Two species of boring Cyanophyta were studied, and their borings were compared in exposed calcite (Island spar). The size and pattern of borings reflect the corresponding properties of the algae and show taxonomic distinctions. The direction of the tunnels and their wall sculptureare determined by the planes of crystal cleavage and twinning.

Algal boring is a dissolution process performed by the terminal cells of endolithic filaments. The space dissolved away by an alga has the shape of a miniature calcite crystal. Dissolution proceeds along the crystal twinning lines diagonally to the previous microcrystal space. Thetunnel represents a sequence of such microcrystal-shaped spaces. Both biological and mineralogical determinants should be considered in the interpretation of algal boring patterns.


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