RESUMEN
Three fossil coral samples (Pocillopora elegans and Pocillopora damicornis) were collected from a beachrock in Puerto Escondido, central Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The age of the samples ranged from 1272+/-60 to 2010+/-60 years BP. They represent some of the few Holocene fossil corals known from the Pacific coast of the Americas. The uplift rate for the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica was calculated in 0.4 to 2.1 mm year(-1).
Asunto(s)
Antozoos , Fósiles , Animales , Costa RicaRESUMEN
A new species of scleractinian coral is described: Euphyllia donatoi. This is the first report of this genus from Central America. The outcrop is located on the north-west of Costa Rica. It consists of large colonies (1.2 m high by 0.5 m in diameter), from a patch reef which had a dendroid habit. They are part of a very distintive facies in a micritic limestones of the Barra Honda Formation (Paleogene). The finding is important because these are the only macrofossils found in Barra Honda Formation. The growth took place under unstable ecological conditions resulting in a low diversity autocthonous community. It probably developed in very shallow water with a high sedimentation rate.