Late Moscovian (mid-Pennsylvanian) rugose corals from Wadi Araba (Egypt, Eastern Desert): Taxonomy, palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography

Abstract

An important late Moscovian rugose coral association is described from the Rod El Hamal Formation of the Wadi Araba area (northern Eastern Desert, Egypt). The upper part of the formation yielded a moderately abundant but poorly diversified coral fauna composed of large dissepimented solitary rugose corals. In total, six species belong to the Bothrophyllidae and the Geyerophyllidae, including three new species: Bothrophyllum suezensis, Bothrophyllum cylindricum, and Amygdalophylloides omarai. Three undeterminable Bothrophyllidae taxa are left in open nomenclature. The corals were attached to the soft substrate by talons and rootlets, either rooted and growing upward as mud-stickers or as secondary recliners. They show frequent rejuvenations and constrictions. Encrustation and/or bioerosion are scarce. Carbonate microfacies indicate a habitat in littoral and inner neritic zones adjacent to a low terrigenous hinterland. Colonial taxa are missing and tabulate corals are rare. The corals from the Rod El Hamal Formation are the only example of a late Moscovian coral fauna on the southern margin of the Palaeotethys, that is to say along the northern margin of Gondwana. The association shows similarities with northwestern Spain (Cantabrian Mountains), the Donets and Moscow basins, and thus a general attribution to the Palaeotethys realm.