"dunaliella" was originally called "haematococcus salinus"  by a french botanist named michel félix dunal, who first sighted the organism in 1838 in saltern evaporation ponds in montpellier, france. however, when the organism was officially described and labelled as a new and distinct genus in 1905 bucharest, romania by emanoil c. teodoresco, the name was changed to "dunaliella" in honour of the original discoverer. to describe the genus, teodoresco studied live samples from romanian salt lakes and noted details like colours, movement, and general morphologies.