Enhanced biodiversity in the deep: Early Pleistocene coral communities from southern Italy

The Early Pleistocene fault plane of Furnari, that outcrops in northeastern Sicily (southern Italy), provided a primary hard substrate for the settling and growth of large coral colonies. Even though the corals did not form frameworks, they influenced the composition and distribution of the benthic communities. Corals and associated fauna produced organogenic debris, which was deposited along the fault scarp, within its fractures or at its base. Bulk-samples from coarse debris sediments along the palaeoescarpment and from silty sediments at the scarp foot have been studied, with focus on corals, molluscs, serpulids, bryozoans and ostracods. The fossil assemblages examined can be related to original coral and mud-communities from a shallow epibathyal palaeoenvironment, 400 to 500 m deep. High values in species richness and diversity were recorded, especially for the deep-coral communities. Owing to the inferred elevated biodiversity, the Furnari coral communities show similarities with those flourishing in the present day North Atlantic and appear congruent with the scenario of cold stenothermic Pleistocene deep Mediterranean waters.