Original paper

A small Albian coral fauna from the Sierra de Seguili (Alicante province, SE Spain)

Löser, Hannes; Castro, José Manuel Nieto

Abstract

From the Early to Middle Albian of south-eastern Spain (Prebetic) a small coral fauna is reported. Five species are described. Four species belonging to the Leptophyllidae, Montlivaltiidae, and Cyathophoridae families are quite common in outcrops of an Aptian to Early Cenomanian age, mainly in the central Tethys and Western Hemisphere. One species belongs to the Hemiporitidae family and represents only the second colonial coral genus known from the Meandrinina suborder in the Early Cretaceous, the first being Phyllocoenia. A short account is therefore given of the suborder Meandrinina, its history, taxonomic composition and diversity through the time. Due to the low quality of the material and the availability of only one sample, the material is preliminarily assigned to the genus Lamnastrea Reig Oriol, 1997, which is herein revised on the basis of thin sections obtained from the type of the type species.

Keywords

coralscretaceousspainprebeticscleractinia