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We have already talked about it, it is one of the oldest marine organisms on Planet Earth, marine lichen or coral algae belongs to the Plant Kingdom and the division of Red Algae. Common in the Mediterranean Sea and also in other seas and oceans, in the video we filmed the Lithophyllum stictiforme, Coralline algae, Red Coralline algae, Sea lichen. Lichene marino Alga corallina Lithophyllum stictiforme Red algae intottheblue.it
Lichene marino o Alga corallina Lithophyllum stictiforme Red algae Marine lichen intottheblue.it
These algae are among the oldest forms of life on our planet, a presence that has been incessantly building and modifying underwater landscapes for millions of years. We are talking about coral algae, organisms with calcareous skeletons that accumulate over time on rocks and seabeds, helping to create some of the most evocative and biodiversity-rich landscapes of our seas: such as the coralligenous, the Mediterranean equivalent of large reefs (or coral reefs) of tropical oceans. Of these algae, which scientists more precisely define as calcareous red algae, there are 725 taxa spread from the tropics to the poles, and until now it was believed that they were exclusively marine organisms.
Lichene marino o Alga corallina Lithophyllum stictiforme Red algae Marine lichen intottheblue.it
In the video we are right on a coral seabed at about 42 meters deep, typical of the Mediterranean Sea, where we see how a certain biodiversity consisting of corals, gorgonians and sea daisies manages to thrive; fish such as red damselfish, black damselfish, smallmouth and sea damselfish (Phicys phicys) which usually find shelter in the ravines of the coral wall.
Now, however, a new discovery suddenly changes the game: the first species of calcareous red algae that lives only in fresh water.
https://www.repubblica.it/scienze/2016/03/23/news/alga_acqua_dolce-136165588/
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