The Red Sea may have gotten its name from dinoflagellate blooms. Dinoflagellates are most often considered to be plants because many make their own food using air, water, and sunlight.
Some dinoflagellates eat other plants or eat small or large animals.
Some live within animals such as corals. Many dinoflagellates have a complex life cycle that includes a resting stage. During this stage, the dinoflagellate may live in a very durable capsule called a dinocyst. The dinocyst is studied by paleontologists. Dinocysts are found in muds, sands, and other sediments at the bottoms of modern ocean, estuaries, lakes, and ponds, and as fossils in mudstones, sandstones, and limestones.