Paleoecological constraints on reef-coral morphologies in the Tortonian–early Messinian of the Lorca Basin, SE Spain

Abstract Coral reefs represent one of the main carbonate factories that contributed to the control of the stratigraphic architecture of carbonate platforms, which had a widespread development during the late Miocene in the paleo-Mediterranean area. The late Miocene reef complexes of the Lorca Basin in southeastern Spain are composed of five mixed siliciclastic/carbonate units, middle Tortonian to early Messinian in age. The development of coral reefs probably ceased when the first evaporitic event occurred in the basin centre in the early Messinian. This study mainly focuses on the response of reef communities and the modifications of reef organisation to global and regional parameters. At …