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A new, extinct Pleistocene reef coral from the Montastraea “annularis” species complex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

John M. Pandolfi
John M. Pandolfi*
Affiliation:
Centre for Marine Studies and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia,
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Abstract

A new species of the Montastraea “annularis” species complex is herein described from Pleistocene coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea. The species, Montastraea nancyi n. sp., had a broad geographic distribution at mainly insular sites 125 Ka. It has a fossil record extending from >600 Ka (thousand years) to 82 Ka, both first and last occurrences exclusively on the island of Barbados. It also had a broad environmental tolerance, occurring in fringing, windward back-reef and reef-crest, leeward reef-crest, and lagoonal patch-reef environments. In every habitat in which it lived, there are examples that it either dominated the coral fauna or shared dominance with Acropora palmata, a dominant shallow water coral in high-energy Pleistocene and modern reefs. The extinction of Montastraea nancyi resulted in evolutionary and ecological change in surviving members of the M. “annularis” species complex.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , May 2007 , pp. 472 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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