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Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24307674/
Evidence of photosymbiosis in Palaeozoic tabulate corals - PubMed Skip to main page content
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. 2013 Dec 4;281(1775):20132663.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2663. Print 2014 Jan 22.

Evidence of photosymbiosis in Palaeozoic tabulate corals

Mikolaj K Zapalski  1
Affiliations

Evidence of photosymbiosis in Palaeozoic tabulate corals

Mikolaj K Zapalski. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Coral reefs form the most diverse of all marine ecosystems on the Earth. Corals are among their main components and owe their bioconstructing abilities to a symbiosis with algae (Symbiodinium). The coral-algae symbiosis had been traced back to the Triassic (ca 240 Ma). Modern reef-building corals (Scleractinia) appeared after the Permian-Triassic crisis; in the Palaeozoic, some of the main reef constructors were extinct tabulate corals. The calcium carbonate secreted by extant photosymbiotic corals bears characteristic isotope (C and O) signatures. The analysis of tabulate corals belonging to four orders (Favositida, Heliolitida, Syringoporida and Auloporida) from Silurian to Permian strata of Europe and Africa shows these characteristic carbon and oxygen stable isotope signatures. The δ(18)O to δ(13)C ratios in recent photosymbiotic scleractinians are very similar to those of Palaeozoic tabulates, thus providing strong evidence of such symbioses as early as the Middle Silurian (ca 430 Ma). Corals in Palaeozoic reefs used the same cellular mechanisms for carbonate secretion as recent reefs, and thus contributed to reef formation.

Keywords: Palaeozoic; Symbiodinium; photosymbiosis; stable isotopes; tabulata; zooxanthellae.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Examples of the analysed tabulate corals. (a) Michelinia tenuisepta (Philips 1836); Dębnik, Cracow area, Poland; Tournaisian, specimen no. ZPAL T.22/8. (b) Thamnopora ex gr. boloniensis (Gosselet 1877); Kowala, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland; Frasnian, specimen no. ZPAL T.26 KOW R020. Scale bars, 2 mm.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Ratios of δ18O to δ13C (in ‰) in tabulate coral skeletons. Filled circles show probably aposymbiotic Yavorskia paszkowski from the deep water Famennian sediments of Kowala, Holy Cross Mountains (Poland) and stars show probably photosymbiotic tabulates from the shallow water Frasnian beds of the same locality. Open circles show all other investigated tabulates. Areas of recent coral isotopic ratios are shaded, and Triassic and Jurassic corals are left blank. Data for recent, Triassic and Jurassic corals following [8].
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