Valanginian-Hauterivian scleractinian coral communities from the Marseille region (SE France)

Coral beds associated with Valanginian and Hauterivian platform carbonates from the Marseille region show two faunal assemblages corresponding with a Stylosmilia-Baryphyllia community (late Valanginian) and a Mesomorpha-Dimorpharaea community (early Hauterivian). The stratigraphic position of this fauna is based on the associate microfossils and correlation with ammonite-bearing beds. The internal architecture of the coral beds is loosely packed, the geometry of the corresponding bodies is tabulate and flat, and their depositional setting being the deeper, muddy part of the infralittoral zone.The biostratigraphic significance of the encountered species which include: Stylosmilia cf. corallina, Eocomoseris raueni, Mesomorpha ornata, Dimorpharaea catalaunica and Baryphyllia haimei, is low and our data tend to broaden the stratigraphic range of some of them.Assuming that the corresponding species were zooxantellate suggests the existence of an oligotrophic rather than a mesotrophic oceanic regime, postulated by some workers for the time span in question.