Recovery of Corals and Reefs after the End-Permian and the 'Naked Coral' Lazarus Effect

摘要

INTRODUCTION Through the Late Permian reefs constructed by corals, Tubiphytes, algae and a variety of other organisms waxed and waned then collapsed suddenly at the end of the Permian and did not recover until the Middle Triassic (Weidlich, 2002; Fliigel and Stanley, 1984). While causes of the extinction are being resolved, it is the delayed recovery which is the most unresolved issue (Pruss and Bottjer, 2005; Bowring et al., 1999). Stanley (1992, 1988) viewed the end-Permian extinction as an Early Triassic event and proposed that protracted sea chemistry perturbations essentially held reefs back from recovering more quickly.