TAXONOMY OF FOSSIL CORALLINE ALGAL SPECIES - NEOGENE LITHOPHYLLOIDEAE(RHODOPHYTA, CORALLINACEAE) FROM SOUTHERN SPAIN

The anatomy of coralline algae is relatively simple. This, together wi th high intraspecific variability, reduces characters used as diagnost ic criteria in delimiting species in present-day coralline algae to a very few, most of which can be recognized in fossil representatives of this family. Similar taxonomic procedures may thus be used at the spe cies level both in modern and fossil coralline algae. Extant species o f this subfamily can be recognized in fossil material. This study of L ithophylloideae from the Neogene of southern Spain describes five spec ies (Lithophyllum dentatum, L. incrustans, L. nitorum, L. orbiculatum, and L. pustulatum), which are all found in the present-day Atlantic a nd western Mediterranean. Palaeontological studies on coralline algae, at least those from the late Cenozoic, have to take into account mode rn species and their current taxonomy, as coralline algal species have long stratigraphic ranges and many extant species were presumably alr eady present in the Neogene.