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Marine Diatoms

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Fundamentals of Invertebrate Palaeontology

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Abstract

Diatoms are very small (10–200 μm) plant-like organisms (phytoplanktons) that float. Of all the algae phyla, diatoms are the most numerous, with ~10,000 known species, inhabiting both marine (~75%) and fresh water and other habitats (~25%). Like plants, the diatoms photosynthesize sunlight (autotrophs), but unlike terrestrial plants their light absorbing pigments are brown, not green.

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Correspondence to Sreepat Jain .

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Jain, S. (2020). Marine Diatoms. In: Fundamentals of Invertebrate Palaeontology. Springer Geology. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3962-8_7

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