Journal of Paleontology; May 2007; v. 81; no. 3;
p. 472-482; DOI: 10.1666/05046.1
© 2007 Paleontological Society
A NEW, EXTINCT PLEISTOCENE REEF CORAL FROM THE MONTASTRAEA "ANNULARIS" SPECIES COMPLEX
JOHN M. PANDOLFI1
1 Centre for Marine Studies and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia, <j.pandolfi{at}uq.edu.au>
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.
Copyright © 2008 by Paleontological Society