Dictyophycus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of algae}}

{{Taxobox

|fossil_range = Middle Cambrian, {{fossil_range|520}}

|domain = Eukaryota

|unranked_regnum = Archaeplastida

|divisio = Rhodophyta

|classis =

|ordo =

|familia =

|genus = Dictyophycus

|species = D. gracilis

|binomial = Dictyophycus gracilis

|binomial_authority = Walcott 1919

}}

Dictyophycus is a putative red alga of the middle Cambrian Burgess shale.{{fotbs}} While alive, it formed leaf-like lobes about 25mm across. The fossils do not preserve the leaf-like membrane, so only the sturdier "skeleton" is known; these are usually broken and detached from their holdfast. 308 specimens of Dictyophycus are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.59% of the community.{{cite journal|last1=Caron |first1=Jean-Bernard|last2=Jackson |first2=Donald A.|title=Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale|journal=PALAIOS |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=451–65|date=October 2006|doi=10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R|jstor=20173022|bibcode=2006Palai..21..451C |s2cid=53646959 }}