NAME Ordovicimyces
AGE    AGE span:  mya
K&J CLASSIFICATION (2000) Oomycetes, Saprolegniales.
FIGURE(S)
FIGURE REFERENCE
SPECIES, AUTHORITY Ordovicimyces Elias 1966, p. 12.
LOCATION
ORIG DESCRIPTION* ORIGINAL DIAGNOSIS: The genus is based on a single marine endobryozoan species. It unites the individuals in which the following characters are encountered in various combinations with each other: 1. Growth forms, which in shape, size, and septation resemble that of germlings of various extant filamentous algae. 2. Unseptate, coenocytic, hypha-like growth forms, with complete or partial development of a subcentral, apparently cytoplasmic strand, a character known to occur only in some extant Saprolegniales. 3. Individually developed transverse septa, whose complex structure is very similar to that known only in certain extant representatives of the orders Ulotrichales (particularly the suborder Spheropleineae), Cladophorales, and Chaetophorales. 4. Rare, individually developed double-septa with remains of cytoplasm sandwiched in between. Monotypic.
COMMENTS* The new family [Ordovicimyceae] is proposed for the single genus Ordovicimyces Elias, whose origin appears to be different from that of the other Saprolegniales. The modern Saprolegniales are considered to be evolved from the Siphonales algae, or from some unicellular coccoid member of the Xanthophyceae (Gäumann & Wynd, 1952, p. 55); whereas the described Ordovicimyces appears to have evolved from an ancient stock of septate filamentous Chlorophyta. The recent discovery of the numerous and highly advanced genera of Siphonales (Korde, 1961, p. 60-71) in the early Cambrian of south central Siberia shows that this order has differentiated from the rest of Chlorophyta already at Cambrian and probably even pre-Cambrian time; and now the presence in an Ordovician bryozoan of an apparent evolutionary development of a fungus from a septate filamentous green alga indicates the existence at this same and even earlier time of similar septate filamentous chlorophytes.

Because the numerous individuals of Ordovicimyces display assorted combinations of algal and fungal morphology, a combination of both algal and fungal terminologies are appropriately used in their description. [For details, refer to original paper].
PUBLICATION REFERENCE Elias MK. 1966. Living and fossil algae and fungi, formerly known as structural parts of marine bryozoans; The Palaeobotanist, v. 14 (1965), p. 5-18.
K&J REMARKS
TYPE TYPE: Ordovicimyces gallowayi Elias 1966, p. 12.
ALL NAMES (Including synonyms) Ordovicimyces;
SERIAL NUMBER 1165
PUBLIC COMMENTS
 *For source, see Publication Reference.