Vanvoorstia bennettiana (Harvey) Papenfuss

Bennett’s Seaweed (Vanvoorstia bennettiana)  

Bennett’s Seaweed is probably the first marine algae species that was officially declared extinct.  

This very small red alga species was described in 1859, it may probably always only have occurred on two places within the harbor of Sydney at the coast of New South Wales, where it apparently was still quite common at the time when it was discovered.  

The extinction of this species was caused by various human activities that led to a pollution of the water with suspended sediments which again were blocking the very fine clathrate branches of the algae, resulting in the inhibition of photosynthesis and causing the dead of the plants.  

The last living examples were found in 1886.  

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Depiction from: ‘William Henry Harvey: Phycologia Australica; or, A History of Australian Seaweeds; comprising coloured figures and descriptions of the more characteristic marine algae of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia and a synopsis of all known Australian algae. London, L. Reeve 1858-63’  

(not in copyright)

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edited: 21.03.2018