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Taphonomy of coral reefs: a review

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Abstract

This review summarises the major factors that affect the post-mortem history of skeletons in a coral reef environment. Skeletal material is traced from life, through death, breakdown, transport, burial and diagenesis to its final fossil form. The fact that most reef sediments are of skeletal composition poses problems of concentration or dilution of individual grain types in taphonomic analysis of reefs. Rates of supply of grains vary, not only with organism abundance and skeletal growth rates, but also with rates of physical and biological breakdown to transportable sediment. Physical and organic processes affect sedimentary structures and textures by mixing or segregating skeletal grains, though biogenic processes normally dominate in the protected setting of reef lagoons. The soft and hard substrates associated with reefs present different media for calcium carbonate accumulation and post-depositional disturbance, for example, loose sediments suffer bioturbation and rocks surfaces suffer bioerosion. The wide range of durability of skeletons and their susceptibility to diagenesis contribute further to the complexities of the preservation of coral reefs.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3JW, Edinburgh, Scotland

    T. P. Scoffin

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Scoffin, T.P. Taphonomy of coral reefs: a review. Coral Reefs 11, 57–77 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00357423

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