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Regional persistence of the extant coral genus Stephanocoenia since the Early Cretaceous in the Western Atlantic

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Abstract

The scleractinian coral genus Stephanocoenia was previously only known from the Western Atlantic with two Pliocene and two extant species, of which two are considered synonymous. Systematic sampling and examination of collection material revealed that the genus occurs from the Hauterivian to extant with gaps in the fossil record during the Campanian, Paleocene and Eocene. During this time the genus was restricted to the Western Atlantic and is unknown in other areas with the exception of one specimen from the Maastrichtian of the eastern Pacific. Thirteen species are separated using non-parametric statistical methods. Two species are described as new. One species remained in open nomenclature and two species can only be compared to existing species. The genus reached its highest abundance during the Early Albian with five species and the Pleistocene/extant with four species. Stephanocoenia demonstrates a regional persistence unchanged over the past 135 million years, which is unique among all post-paleozoic scleractinian corals. Stephanocoenia is also the most ancient hermatypic scleractinian coral genus, which still exists today.

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Acknowledgements

Collection material for comparison was kindly made available for this study by A. Andouche (Paris, France), S. Cairns (Washington D.C., USA), N. Clark (Glasgow, England), J. Darell (London, United Kingdom), W. Etter (Basel, Switzerland), L. Hristova (Sofia, Bulgaria), J. Leloux (Leiden, The Netherlands), A. Molineux (Austin, USA), J. Myers-Nagel (Ithaca, USA). E. Roniewicz (Warszawa, Poland), M. Stecheson (Los Angeles, USA). N. Fouquet (Antofagasta, Chile) and R. Garberoglio (Buenos Aires, Argentina) allowed me to observe material from the Early Cretaceous of Chile and Argentina. I am particularly grateful to Ann and Ian Molineux (Austin) for hosting me several times. I wish to thank L. Puebla (Hermosillo, Mexico) for measuring numerous Stephanocoenia specimens. Some thin sections were kindly prepared by the ERNO thin section laboratory, namely Aimée Orcí (Hermosillo). Financial support by PAPIIT-DGPAPA project IN101111 (UNAM, Mexico) is kindly acknowledged. E. Marin (La Paz, Mexico) provided valuable guidance in the selection of the statistical methods. I wish to thank the two reviewers who helped to improve the manuscript.

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    Hannes Löser

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Löser, H. Regional persistence of the extant coral genus Stephanocoenia since the Early Cretaceous in the Western Atlantic. PalZ 94, 17–39 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-019-00457-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-019-00457-y

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