Implications for the Fossil Record of Modern Carbonate Bank Corals

Abstract

A variety of growth forms, analogous with those developed by Silurian colonial organisms, are constructed by modern scleractinian corals living in south Florida carbonate banks. The fauna of the Silurian bioherms is thought to have formed under broadly similar conditions and not as a patch or barrier reef as suggested by earlier workers. First approximations as to the extent of the ancient sediments' lithification can be made on the evidence of the coral growth form present.