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Samples of Lophelia were taken at two localities in the Lindos Bay Clay (Lower Pleistocene) of the Rhodes Formation on the Dodecanese Island of Rhodes. At a coastal exposure at Vasphi, northeast Rhodes, about 200 fragments of Lophelia were collected in situ from the clay and surface preservation of these is consequently particularly fine. The second collection of material was made at an exposure south of Lardos, about 35 km further south. This material comprised some 800 fragments of Lophelia collected both in situ and loose; preservation quality of the surfaces of these is variable. Both collections derive from single fl at beds of coral fragments. Bioerosion of the corals shows a good diversity, comprising about 18 ichnotaxa, five in open nomenclature, including: Orthogonum lineare, Saccomorpha clava and other microborings (probably exclusively of endolithic fungi), Oichnus isp. (pits and holes of various forms, probably all deriving from foraminifers), dish-shaped etchings possibly produced by the foraminifer Hyrrokkin sarcophaga, Palaeosabella prisca (polychaete worm borings), Caulostrepsis isp. (polychaete borings), probable Maeandropolydora isp. (polychaete borings), Talpina isp. (phoronid borings), Podichnus centrifugalis (attachment scars of brachiopods), Centrichnus eccentricus (attachment scars of anomiid bivalves), Gnathichnus pentax (tooth scratches by regular echinoids), and Entobia ispp. (borings of endolithic sponges). Three small, radiating forms around a millimetre in size are difficult to attribute to particular tracemaking organisms. They are retained in open nomenclature as Semidendrina-form (possibly foraminifera borings), a non-camerate radiating form and a hirsute camerate form. No ctenostome bryozoan borings were observed. Talpina isp. is abundant at Vasphi but scarce at Lardos. Otherwise the relative abundance of the trace fossils is comparable at the two localities. The total amount of bioerosion varies considerably in different parts of the coral skeleton. On the basis of SEM imagery, three categories of bioerosional intensity are introduced: 1, slight bioerosion; 2, medium bioerosion, and 3, heavy bioerosion. The distribution of Gnathichnus pentax and the absence of Radulichnus inopinatus indicates an aphotic environment. The microbioerosional assemblage correlates with the Saccomorpha clava / Orthogonum lineare Ichnocoenosis, which also indicates an aphotic seafl oor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern and widespread deep-water coral ecosystems have become a major target of research during the last decades. So far, only a few fossil counterparts of such carbonate-secreting deep-water communities have been described. This scarcity might be a result of either, a possible miss-identification as a tropical deposit and/or the rare case of tectonic uplift and subsequent access to these deepwater deposits. The early Pleistocene St. Paul’s Bay Limestone on the island of Rhodes (Greece) represents one of the few known examples of the bathyal ‘white coral community’ dominated by Lophelia pertusa which are exposed on land. This occurrence relates to a convergent tectonic setting with large-scale uplifts in the vicinity of the European-African plate boundary that is responsible for the exposure of these early Pleistocene deep-water deposits. The geometry of the St. Paul’s Bay Limestone significantly differs from the mound-forming Lophelia occurrences as known, e.g., from the NE-Atlantic or the Florida Strait. Instead, it appears similar to the modern ‘white coral community’ of the western Mediterranean Sea that is usually associated with submarine cliffs. Much like the latter, the St. Paul’s Bay Limestone demonstrates that the growth and final deposition of the ‘white coral community’ was strongly influenced by the complex relief with steep submarine basement cliffs generated by horst-graben systems. These submarine cliffs not only provided the main habitat for the ‘white coral community’, they also explain recurrent instability and redeposition by debris falls along the submarine cliffs. Such a debris fall mechanism is strongly suggested by: (1) the steep slope angles (>30°), (2) the short transport distance (<20 m), (3) the wedge-like geometry, (4) the lack of grading, (5) the fabric complexity with incorporated fragments of hardgrounds, intraclasts and slightly consolidated sediment, (6) geopetal structures of various directions, thus indicating multiple resedimentation events, and (7) the variety of fragmentation and bioerosion. This resulted in the final deposition of the ‘white coral community’ (1) at the foot of submarine cliffs and (2) in neptunian dykes and, to a minor extent (3) in erosional depressions of the basement rock. In conclusion, the basic characters of the St. Paul’s Bay Limestone in terms of the initial facies, fabric and fauna largely match those described for lithoherms (Florida Strait). The enhanced complexity in terms of the final fabric and the wedge-like geometry appear due to multiple resedimentation events via debris falls along submarine cliffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]