[1] These oligotrophic organisms are abundant in nutrient poor tropical waters and use a unique photosynthetic pigment, divinyl-chlorophyll, to absorb light and acquire energy.
This unique group of phytoplankton, with no phycobilin pigments, were initially found in 1975 near the Great Barrier Reef[4] and off the coast of Mexico (Prochloron).
[5] Prochlorophyta was soon assigned as a new algal sub-class in 1976 by Ralph A. Lewin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
[6][7] Other phytoplankton that lacked phycobilin pigments were later found in freshwater lakes in the Netherlands by Tineke Burger-Wiersma and colleagues[8] and were termed Prochlorothrix (additional reading on Prochlorothrix can be found in a journal article by A.V.
Members of Prochlorophyta have been found as coccoid (spherical) (Coccus) shaped, as in Prochlorococcus, and as filaments, as in Prochlorothrix.