Coccolithophore

Common card · No. 301290

Coccolithophores, or coccolithophorids, are single-celled organisms which are part of the phytoplankton, the autotrophic (self-feeding) component of the plankton community. They form a group of a few hundred species, and belong either to the kingdom Protista, according to Robert Whittaker's five-kingdom system, or clade Hacrobia, according to a newer biological classification system. Within the Hacrobia, the coccolithophores are in the phylum or division Haptophyta, class Prymnesiophyceae (or Coccolithophyceae). Coccolithophores are almost exclusively marine, are photosynthetic and mixotrophic, and exist in large numbers throughout the sunlight zone of the ocean. Coccolithophores are the most productive calcifying organisms on the planet, covering themselves with a calcium carbonate shell called a coccosphere. It is formed when a cell arranges a series of interlocking coccoliths to completely cover its surface. Coccoliths (minute calcium carbonate platelets) are generated within the cell...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Richard Lampitt, Jeremy Young, The Natural History Museum, London, CC BY 2.5