REEFCORAL: a tool for evaluating the taxonomic and palaeoecological evolution of z-coral communities in the Cenozoic Mediterranean realm

Abstract : With an increasing need of data for better understanding the response of reef coral communities to global change, the Mediterranean region is a suitable and promising “laboratory” for investigating spatio temporal changes in reef and coral-bearing ecosystems during the Cenozoic. Our REEFCORAL database hosts data on currently more than 3000 scleractinian-coral occurrences from 285 Oligocene and Miocene localities in the circum-Mediterranean regions, including the Mediterranean, the Paratethys, and some Middle- East and Eastern Atlantic areas.