A new coral family and three new genera from the Lower Cretaceous of Puebla and Sonora (Scleractinia; Mexico)

Abstract

Solitary corals currently assigned to the genus Plesiosmilia are common elements in Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous coral faunas. The genus itself is poorly defined and its systematic position is questionable. Moreover, examination of type material has shown that the genus lumps corals of different morphologies. Here, one common coral type is separated in a new solitary coral genus as well as two new phaceloid coral genera with a comparable morphology. The three new and another three existing genera are collected in a new family. The newly described material comes from the Upper Valanginian-Lower Hauterivian of San Juan Raya (Puebla) and the Lower Albian of Rayón (Sonora, both Mexico).

Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) Bisbee Group, Arizpe area, northern Sonora, Mexico: Integrated biostratigraphy, age and provenance from U-Pb and Hf isotopes

“…The Mural Limestone and La Juana Formation are the only marine, fossiliferous units of the Bisbee Group in the Arizpe area. Previously, rudists and oyster bivalves, corals, echinoderms, and benthic foraminifera were reported from limestone beds of the Mural Limestone in the Cerro La Ceja and Sierra Los Azulitos localities of this area (Figure 3) (González León, 1978;Löser, 2011). From the Cerro La Puerta and Cerro La Espina members in the Cerro La Ceja block, an upper Aptian -lower Albian foraminiferal assemblage comprises Paracoskinolina sunnilandensis (Maync, 1955), Praechrysalidina sp., Nautiloculina bronnimanni Arnaud-Vanneau and Peybernès (1978), Cuneolina sp.…”

Distribution and palaeoecology of scleractinian corals during the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous)

“…1891; Rengarten, 1959) and identifications have not been confirmed in subsequent works, are excluded from the present study. Over 2,000 records, including around 500 nominal taxa, have been evaluated (Kiessling & Baron-Szabo, 2004; Leloux, 2004; Filkorn et al, 2005; Baron-Szabo, 2006, 2008; Khazaei et al, 2009; Jell et al, 2011; Löser, 2012; Görmüş et al, 2019; Baron-Szabo et al, 2023), inclusive of new information provided by Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org). Affinities of coral assemblages have been calculated using the Jaccard Index.…”

“…They are distinctly dominated by zooxanthellate forms (Tables 4 and 5). Maastrichtian corals from Mexico have been described from both northern (Myers, 1968;Schafhauser et al, 2003;Baron-Szabo et al, 2006) and southern areas (Filkorn et al, 2005;Löser, 2012), from both reefal environments (Schafhauser et al, 2003) and non-reefal mixed clastic/carbonate sequences (Baron-Szabo et al, 2006). The Mexican assemblages consist nearly exclusively of colonial forms and are characterised by a moderate to high species richness.…”

“…Scleractinian corals of Maastrichtian age have been the focus of various studies since the late 18 th century, including works on their taxonomy (e.g. Faujas-Saint-Fond, 1798-1803Goldfuss, 1826Goldfuss, -1844Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857;Nötling, 1897;Trauth, 1911;Dietrich, 1917;Umbgrove, 1925;Wells, 1933Wells, , 1934Alloiteau, 1936Alloiteau, , 1952bAlloiteau, , 1958Kuzmicheva, 1985Kuzmicheva, , 1987Tchéchmédjiéva, 1986Tchéchmédjiéva, , 1995Filkorn, 1994;Leloux, 1999Leloux, , 2004Baron-Szabo, 2000, 2006, 2008Filkorn et al, 2005;Jell et al, 2011;Löser, 2012;Baron-Szabo et al, 2023) as well as in analyses primarily dealing with Maastrichtian stratigraphy and sedimentology (e.g. Gill et al, 1966;Sohl & Koch, 1984;Görmüş et al, 2019;Afghah, 2022).…”