Evolutionary history of the reef building coralline algae (Rhodophyta)

Mastophoroids in the sense of Harvey et al. (2003) are the main components of shallow coral reef environments. Their status as a monophyletic subfamily is lost, but different subsequent proposals about the taxonomic relationships of their genera were declared to be untenable. Here we present a new, more complete phylogeny of Mastophoroideae sensu Harvey et al. (2003) with a temporal dimension reflecting the evolutionary history of this clade which is very important in ecological and structural means in coral reefs. We agree with Kato et al. (2011) to maintain the Lithophylloideae, Corallinoideae and Metagoniolithoideae, to reduce the Mastophoroideae and to establish the new subfamilies Hydrolithoideae, Neogoniolithoideae and Porolithoideae. We propose two new genera Adeylithon gen. nov. with the type species A. conicum and Harveylithon gen. nov. with the type species H. rupestre. The calibration of the molecular clock of the genetic marker SSU supposes a Cenozoic origin of most of the clades of the former mastophoroids sensu Harvey et al. (2003) and a separation from Hapalidiaceae in the boundary between early and late Cretaceous.