Oligocene-Miocene Extinction and Geographic Restriction of Caribbean Corals: Roles of Turbidity, Temperature, and Nutrients

Abstract

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The future of coral reefs

“…Within the tropics, however, it does appear that shallow-water, low-nutrient carbonate platforms have been more vulnerable than other tropical environments, although there is no strong evidence that such ecosystems recover more slowly (87). There is also a limited amount of evidence suggesting that photosymbiotic organisms might have been more vulnerable to extinction than nonphotosymbiotic organisms, both at the end of the Cretaceous (87) and during the more minor Oligocene-Miocene extinction (108). Corals were also more vulnerable to the changes associated with the rise of the Isthmus of Panama; there are no living examples of closely related sister species among the zooxanthellate scleractinian corals on the two sides of the Isthmus, whereas such sister taxa are common in other groups (109).…”

“…119 and other articles in this colloquium); if they do, Homo sapiens will have a lot more to worry about than the future of coral reefs. The most relevant comparisons are with the Oligocene-Miocene and Pliocene-Pleistocene extinctions (38,108,114), but both of these events involved cooling episodes rather than global warming. The combination of nutrification, global warming, and loss of top members of the food chain (not to speak of novel, introduced chemicals) is unprecedented over the last 65 million years.…”

A New Early Miocene (Aquitanian) Elasmobranchii Assemblage from the la Guajira Peninsula, Colombia

“…This major biotic rearrangement has been attributed to changes in the quality of the regional water (e.g., Edinger and Risk, 1994;Johnson et al, 2008Johnson et al, , 2009. For example, the collapse of the San Luis coral-reef ecosystems in the northwestern Falcón Basin (Venezuela) is attributed to a decline in water quality resulting from increased sedimentary influx from the complex drainage system of the region during the OMT (Johnson et al, 2009).…”

Gastrochaenolites hospitium isp. nov., trace fossil by a coral-associated boring bivalve from the Eocene and Miocene of Austria

“…This characteristic feature, being an equilibrium structure (Frey & Pemberton 1985), easily distinguishes G. hospitium isp. nov. from all other Gastrochaenolites ispp., which lack them (Kelly & Bromley 1984;Edinger & Risk 1994: fig. 9).…”

“…Kelly & Bromley (1984) provided an ichnological nomenclature of clavate borings, covering many domichnia produced by bivalves, including Lithophaga. Some of the latter produce Gastrochaenolites torpedo Kelly & Bromley, 1984. Edinger & Risk (1994 noted the fossil borings of Lithophaga bisulcata in Oligocene Caribbean corals such as Gastrochaenolites vivus [Lithophaga bisulcata (Orbigny 1853(Orbigny , non 1842) is a junior synonym of L. (Leiosolenus) appendiculata (Philippi, 1846) (Kleemann 2009)].…”