Overview
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Extinct |
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Interesting Facts
- Bennett’s Seaweed (Vanvoorstia bennettiana) was the first seaweed species to be listed on the IUCN Red List (in 2003); it is listed as Extinct . This Australian species has only ever been collected from two sites. No specimens have been seen or collected over the last 116 years, despite numerous collections made by algologists during that period. Habitat loss through human activities (trawling , dredging , infrastructure development, human settlement , tourism/recreation, water transportation, fisheries- related bycatch, and water pollution from agriculture, domestic, commercial/ industrial, oil , sedimentation and sewage ) caused the extinction of this species. (Ref 100465)
Common Names
Common Names in English:
Bennett's Seaweed
Description
Habitat
Biome: Marine [1].
Ecology:
Unknown at time of collection
in 1855 and 1886. The two sites, and
much of Sydney Harbour, presently has soft sediment seabed with scattered
rocky reef and rocky intertidal shores
. Scattered shells and solid
waste
products (cans, bottles etc.
) also lie
on the seabed. (Ref.
312979).
List of Habitats
:
- 9 Marine Neritic
- 9.5 Marine Neritic - Subtidal Sandy-Mud
- 9.10 Marine Neritic - Estuaries [more info]
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- Kingdom:
Plantae
()
- Haeckel, 1866
- Plants
- Subkingdom:
Biliphyta
()
- Cavalier-Smith, 1981
- Phylum:
Rhodophyta
()
- Wettstein, 1922
- Red Algae
- Subphylum:
Macrorhodophytina
()
- T. Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Class:
Florideophyceae
()
- Order:
Ceramiales
()
- Family:
Delesseriaceae
()
- Genus:
Vanvoorstia
()
- Harvey, 1854
- Specific epithet:
bennettiana
- (Harv.) Papenf.
- Botanical name: - Vanvoorstia bennettiana (Harv.) Papenf.
- Specific epithet:
bennettiana
- (Harv.) Papenf.
- Genus:
Vanvoorstia
(
- Family:
Delesseriaceae
(
- Order:
Ceramiales
(
- Class:
Florideophyceae
(
- Subphylum:
Macrorhodophytina
(
- Phylum:
Rhodophyta
(
- Subkingdom:
Biliphyta
(
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
Synonyms
Claudea bennettiana • Claudea bennettiana Harvey • Sonderia bennettiana • Sonderia bennettiana (Harvey) F. Von Mã¼ller
Notes
Name
Status: Accepted Name
.
The genus Vanvoorstia contains three species. Vanvoorstia
spectabilis and V. coccinea are common tropical
(Indo-Pacific
,
including GBR) species, with the former also recorded from Lord Howe
Island. While some confusion exists as to the exact differences between
these two species (Price and Scott 1992), both are easily distinguished
and considered very different from V. bennettiana, a very
much smaller- and finer-meshed species in which the tetrasporangial
stichidia are also easily defined.
There are now four
species. Eric Coppejans (pers. comm.
) indicates that there is a new
species he described from East Africa which is probably Critically
Endangered
: Vanvoorstia incipiens De Clerck, Wynne & Coppejans
(Phycologia 38 (1999): 394-400). This newly described species
occurs massively in a single (rather small) bay
along the east coast
of Zanzibar, at about low tide
level (large amounts drifting or entangled
to other seaweeds in intertidal pools
). Coppejans carried out over
200 collecting excursions along the Kenyan, Tanzanian (incl. Zanzibar)
coast and NEVER found a single specimen anywhere else than the type
locality
, where we find it again year after year. It doesn't occur
in the neighbouring bays, which look "identical" to this one! If
that bay would be disturbed
(harbour, oil
pollution
, etc.
) the only
known (type) locality would disappear and we would have a similar
story there within the same genus!! Apparently some representatives
do not succeed in colonizing
larger areas![1].
Similar Species
Members of the genus Vanvoorstia
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 1 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:
V. bennettiana (Bennett's Seaweed)
More Info
- Search for Pictures: images.google.com
- Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
- Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
- Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books
Further Reading
- Agardh, J.A. 1890. Till Algernes Systematik, Nya bidrag (Sjette afdelningen). XI. Florideae. Lunds Universitet Arsskrift 26: 125 pp., 3 plates.
- Harvey, W.H. 1859. Phycologia Australica. Volume 2, xi + pls 61-120. Lovel Reeve, London.
- IUCN. 2003. 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 18 November 2003.
- Lucas, A.H.S. 1913. Notes on Australian marine algae, i. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 38:49-60, 5 plates.
- Millar, A.J.K. and Kraft, G.T. 1993. Catalogue of marine and freshwater red algae (Rhodophyta) of New South Wales, including Lord Howe Island, south-western Pacific. Australian Systematic Botany 6: 1-90.
- Papenfuss, G.F. 1956. On the nomenclature of some Delesseriaceae. Taxon 7: 158-162.
- Paxton, J.R. In litt. Evaluation of the assessment of the conservation status of the red alga Vanvoorstia bennettiana (recent common name Bennetts seaweed) as Extinct, using IUCN categories and criteria, by A.J.K. Millar.
- Woodford, J. 1994. Seaweed succumbs to the sludge of modern Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herald. No 48, 974, Saturday August 20, 1994, page 5.
Notes
Contributors
- Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 16, 2012.
- IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
- Millar, A.J.K. 2003. Vanvoorstia bennettiana. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 05February2012.
Data Sources
Accessed through GBIF Data Portal May 13, 2008:
- National Herbarium of New South Wales: NSW herbarium collection
Identifiers
- Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2867462
- Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Alg-23738
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13278215
- IUCN ID: 248333
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 184673
Footnotes
- Millar, A.J.K. 2003. Vanvoorstia bennettiana. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 05 February 2012. [back]
