Articles for tag: coral reef history, marine geology, paleoenvironment, prehistoric coastlines, reef collapse

When a Reef Collapsed - Did It Reshape an Entire Prehistoric Coastline?

When a Reef Collapsed – Did It Reshape an Entire Prehistoric Coastline?

Jan Otte

Imagine watching an entire underwater mountain crumble to dust. You’d witness massive coral structures that took millions of years to build suddenly collapse, sending shockwaves through ancient coastal communities. Biogenic reefs have been hotspots of biodiversity and evolutionary novelty throughout the Phanerozoic. The largest reef systems in Earth’s history occurred in the Devonian period, but ...