Corals and associated molluscs from a Pleistocene paleoreef of the Aramda Reef Member, Gujarat, Western India

Coral reef ecosystems are shaped by complex interactions between reef builders and reef-associated faunas, making it essential to study both faunal groups in tandem for a comprehensive understanding of reefal ecosystems. However, geographic sampling bias, evident even in the case of the Pleistocene, skews our global perspective on this vital ecosystem, with diverse reef ecosystems, especially in the highly diverse Western Indo-Pacific, being generally understudied. The Late Pleistocene Aramda Reef Member, situated in the Western Indo-Pacific Realm, hosts such a comparatively unexplored paleoreef, exposed along the coastal part of Gujarat, India. The present study provides an annotated taxonomic account of the corals and associated molluscan fauna from this Pleistocene reefal community, which includes systematic reporting of several taxa for the first time, as well as taxonomic revision of a few previously reported taxa. Moreover, species-level systematic identification of all bivalve taxa has been attempted for the first time from this member. The coral and molluscan assemblages, though comparatively depauperate relative to coeval Pleistocene reefal faunas from the Red Sea, contribute substantially to regional paleobiodiversity by significantly enhancing the Pleistocene macroinvertebrate record from this region and serve as a foundational effort towards understanding the broad-scale dynamics pertaining to this paleoreefal community.