A new areoligeracean dinoflagellate from the Miocene of offshore eastern Canada and its evolutionary implications

The dinoflagellate family Areoligeraceae, now extinct, was prominent from the Late Jurassic through to the Paleogene. Some areoligeracean species extend into the Neogene but, until now, no genus was known to originate in that interval. Thus, Ramidinium gen. nov., represented by Ramidinium tridens sp. nov. from the Lower to Middle Miocene of the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, offshore eastern Canada, becomes the last known areoligeracean genus to have appeared.