Note: Fredericq & Hommersand (1989a), after analyzing the reproductive development of a species of North Atlantic Gracilaria that they called G. verrucosa (Hudson) Papenfuss (but whose correct name is G. gracilis (Stackhouse) Steentoft, L. Irvine, & Farnham) and clarifying the characters of the Gracilariaceae, removed this family from the Gigartinales to its own order, which they considered to be most closely related to the Ahnfeltiales and Gelidiales.
Note: The recent taxonomic history of this family is discussed in the appended Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Notes.
Note: Kylin (1932: 61) merged Sarcocladia Harvey (1855b: 550) with Curdiea Harvey (1855c: 333). It is uncertain which generic name has priority. While Curdiea was published in the May issue of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, precise dating of the article in which Sarcocladia was published, which was read to the Royal Irish Academy on December 11, 1854, has not been undertaken.
Curdiea ? irvineae J. Agardh, 1894a: 135–136 (type locality: Geographe Bay, Western Australia).—De Toni, 1900: 425–426.— Mazza, 1907 [1905–1918]: 98.— Lucas, 1909: 30.— De Toni, 1924: 247.— Kylin, 1932: 61, pl. 25: fig. 62.— V. May, 1965: 408.
INDIAN OCEAN DISTRIBUTION: Australia.