Recognising macrophyte-vegetated environments in the rock record: a new criterion using ‘hooked’ forms of crustose coralline red algae

Abstract

The role of macrophytes (such as seagrasses) in influencing deposition in shallow marine environments has long been understood. They affect sediment textures such that they do not reflect ambient hydrodynamic conditions, and so the recognition of ancient vegetated environments is important for accurate palaeoenvironmental analysis. However, there is little direct fossil evidence of such plants in the rock record, and so the presence of former macrophyte cover generally has to be inferred from indirect evidence based on the characteristics of modern macrophyte-vegetated environments. We present a new criterion for the recognition of vegetated environments in the rock record, based upon a distinctive ‘hooked’ form of crustose coralline red algae that is definitively indicative of growth on seagrasses (and also on other macrophytes with similarly flattened blades), and has been recognised from both modern (Inhaca Island, Mozambique) and fossil (the Eocene of Oman) seagrass beds.