Persistence of coral-rudist reefs into the Late Cretaceous
- Amoco Production Company, Tulsa, OK (USA)
- Universidad de Pais, Bilbao (Spain)
- Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Spain)
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison (USA)
During the Early Cretaceous, coral-algal communities occupied deeper water habitats in the reef ecosystem, and rudist communities generally populated the shallow-water, carbonate-sand substrates. During the middle Cretaceous, however, coral-algal communities became less common, and Late Cretaceous reef communities consisted of both rudist-dominated and rudist-coral communities. In the Pyrenean basins and other basins in the Mediterranean, coral associations co-existed with rudists forming complex buildups at the shelf-edge. In some parts of these buildups corals were nearly as abundant as rudists; in some complex buildups large coral colonies encrusted the rudists. Behind the shelf margin cylindrical, elevator rudists dominated the lenticular thickets that were interspersed with carbonate sands. Global changes in oceanic conditions, such as marine productivity and oxygen content, may have stressed the deeper coral-algal reef communities leaving rudists as the major shallow reef biota in Caribbean reefs. However, the co-occurrence of corals with rudists in these Pyrenean complex buildups suggests that corals were able to compete with rudists for resources. The corals in the complex buildups generally belong to genera different from those in the coral-algal communities. Perhaps this ecological stress in the mid-Cretaceous resulted in the evolution of new coral taxa.
- OSTI ID:
- 6225097
- Journal Information:
- Palaois; (USA), Journal Name: Palaois; (USA) Vol. 5:2; ISSN PALAE
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
580000* -- Geosciences
ALGAE
ANIMALS
CARBONATE ROCKS
CNIDARIA
COELENTERATA
COMPETITION
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
CONTINENTAL SHELF
CORALS
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
DEPTH
DIMENSIONS
DISTRIBUTION
ECOSYSTEMS
ELEMENTS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GLOBAL ASPECTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INVERTEBRATES
LEVELS
MESOZOIC ERA
NONMETALS
OXYGEN
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLANTS
REEFS
ROCKS
SAND
SEA LEVEL
SEAWATER
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
STRESSES
WATER