Pleistocene scleractinian corals from Marsa Alam area, Red Sea Coast, Egypt: systematics and biogeography

Abstract

Coral reef terraces are investigated in five localities around Marsa Alam on the Egyptian Red Sea Coast. The reefal limestones and the alternating terrigenous clastics are assigned to the Pleistocene Samadai Formation. Sixty-one scleractinian coral species belonging to 25 genera and 10 families were identified. Thirteen scleractinian species, for the first time recorded from the Egyptian Red Sea coastal plain, are systematically studied. The stratigraphic distribution of these fossils is illustrated and discussed. Six species are extended to the Miocene and five other species are recorded from the Pliocene and still living in the present Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific. The geographic distributions of the identified coral species are illustrated on maps. These maps show that, all the identified coral species are distributed only throughout the Indo-Pacific realm, increasing from the central part westwards across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. There are four species that are restricted to the Red Sea, Arabian region and West Indian Ocean.