Article: Hensonella dinarica, an orginally calcitic Early Cretaceous dasycladacean alga

Hensonella dinarica (Radoicic) is an Early Cretaceous, Tethyan microfossil, considered to be either a dasycladacean alga or a problematicum. This is because its preservation in yellowish radial calcite is highly unusual for dasycladacean algae, which are typically preserved in drusy calcite replacing the original aragonite. Petrological, cathodoluminescence and chemical microprobe studies of specimens of H. dinarica, principally from the Middle East, suggest that the original mineralogy of this microfossil was calcitic. The morphology of this species is suggestive of a dasycladacean alga, and so it is considered to be an originally calcitic dasycladacean alga, an unusual phenomenon.