Chrysochromulina lanceolata is a unicellular haptophyte microalga within the genus Chrysochromulina, family Chrysochromulinaceae, class Prymnesiophyceae. The epithet lanceolata — lance-shaped — describes the form of a scale or haptonema component that characterizes this species, a common naming convention in a genus where species are principally separated by electron microscopy of surface structures. C. lanceolata has been recorded from Norwegian coastal marine environments and additionally from Brazilian waters, suggesting an Atlantic distribution spanning both temperate and tropical zones. Such broad distributions are not uncommon in marine nanoplankton, which can be dispersed across oceanic distances by currents and physical mixing, though molecular evidence sometimes reveals cryptic species differences between geographically distant populations. The species inhabits the photic zone of coastal to open-ocean marine systems, where it functions as a primary producer contributing to nanoplankton biomass. Like other haptophytes, C. lanceolata likely possesses the ability for mixotrophic nutrition, combining photosynthesis with phagocytic uptake of bacteria. The genus Chrysochromulina is ecologically significant: collectively its species contribute substantially to dissolved organic carbon production, dimethylsulfoniopropionate synthesis — a precursor to the climatically active gas dimethylsulfide — and carbon export in the biological pump. C. lanceolata has not been evaluated under IUCN criteria and is listed as Not Evaluated. The species represents one of many Chrysochromulina taxa requiring further molecular characterization to establish global biogeographic patterns.