Dictyochales are a small group of unicellular heterokont

Heterokont

The heterokonts or stramenopiles are a major line of eukaryotes currently containing more than 100,000 known species. Most are algae, ranging from the giant multicellular kelp to the unicellular diatoms, which are a primary component of plankton...

 algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

, found in marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 environments.

Characteristics

In one stage of their life cycle, they produce a siliceous skeleton, composed of a network of bars and spikes arranged to form an internal basket. These form a small component of marine sediments, and are known as microfossils from as far back as the early

Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...

 Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

.

Classification

There is one living genus, Dictyocha, with two commonly recognised species. There are also several extinct genera, but their classification is difficult, since skeletons may show diverse forms within each living species.

Dictyocha has one golden-brown chloroplast

Chloroplast

Chloroplasts are organelles found in plant cells and other eukaryotic organisms that conduct photosynthesis. Chloroplasts capture light energy to conserve free energy in the form of ATP and reduce NADP to NADPH through a complex set of processes called photosynthesis.Chloroplasts are green...

 and a long flagellum extended into a wing-like shape. The skeleton-bearing stage is uninucleate, with many microtubule

Microtubule

Microtubules are a component of the cytoskeleton. These rope-like polymers of tubulin can grow as long as 25 micrometers and are highly dynamic. The outer diameter of microtubule is about 25 nm. Microtubules are important for maintaining cell structure, providing platforms for intracellular...

-supported projections, and there are also uninucleate and micronucleate stages that do not produce skeletons, but how they relate to each other is poorly understood. The cell structure places the silicoflagellates in a group called the axodine

Axodine

The axodines are a group of unicellular heterokont algae.They include pedinellids, silicoflagellates, and Rhizochromulinales.Other terms include "Actinochrysophyceae" and "Dictyochophyceae".-Characteristics:They characteristically have a...

s.

Terminology

They are usually treated as an order, called the Dictyochales by botanists and the Silicoflagellida by zoologists.

"Dictyochophyceae" and "silicoflagellates" are sometimes equated.