Chamberlainium pentagonum (Conti) comb. nov. and Spongites fruticulosus (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) in the Miocene carbonates of the western Mediterranean

Abstract

Molecular phylogenetic analyses discovered an unexpected biodiversity of coralline algae in modern oceans. This species richness is unlikely to be an exclusive characteristic of recent ecosystems. With the aim to investigate fossil coralline biodiversity, a large dataset of western Mediterranean Miocene specimens, previously identified as Spongites fruticulosus (and synonymized taxa), have been revised based on the current taxonomic framework. The analysis recognized two distinct groups. The first group includes the specimens fitting within the current description of S. fruticulosus. The second group consists of Chamberlainium pentagonum comb. nov., the first fossil representative of the genus. This species has been separated from S. fruticulosus on the basis of its smaller conceptacles and its thinner conceptacle roof. The very same characters have been highlighted by modern molecular phylogenetic analyses for separating Chamberlainium from Spongites. Chamberlainium pentagonum, similarly to the fossil specimens of Spongites fruticulosus, occurs in most of the investigated area and the two species coexist in several localities, indicating a similar and broad ecological tolerance for both taxa. These results suggest that Miocene coralline algal biodiversity is probably underestimated and prove the convenience of using large datasets for the study of fossil coralline algae.