I always heard the dinos in the Pyrrhophyta(sp?), but I'd bet you can find
Dinophyta somewhere in the literature. Campbell's Biology text puts them in
Dinoflagellata, which I've also not heard. The botany texts I have put them
in the Pyrrhophyta.
Reds and Browns are usually in the Protista. Greens are also, but they can
also go with plants, as they are usually considered paraphyletic to the land
plants. I think it may be good currently to recognize the liverworts
through angiosperms as Embryophyta and to include the greens in the plant
kingdom as several divisions.
A couple of asides:
Campbell's Biology has a cladogram with reds, greens, and land plants making
a monophyletic group. I don't know where this came from.
My feeling is that in the next few years, our texts will begin to reflect
the current Protista as 5 or so kingdoms, each of which is (more or less)
monophyletic. The algae will be scattered throughout several of these
kingdoms, and photosynthesis will be regarded mostly as a primitive
characteristic.
Douglas P. Jensen, Assistant Professor of Biology
PO Box 9615
Hollins College
Roanoke, Virginia 24020
(540)362-6549
djensen at hollins.edu
