Recurring cryptic ecosystems in Lower to Middle Devonian carbonate mounds of Hamar Laghdad (Anti-Atlas, Morocco)

Exceptionally well-preserved fossil cryptic communities have been discovered in submarine cavities of the Lower and Middle Devonian (Emsian to Givetian) mud mounds in the Hamar Laghdad area (Anti-Atlas, Morocco). The cryptic biota encrusted the roofs of the cavities and grew predominantly oriented upside down. These unique coelobiotic communities were dominated by various solitary rugose corals, which very often displayed a “calice-in-calice” growth pattern. Apart from the rugosans, the cavities were inhabited by other sessile invertebrates: tabulate corals, cladochonids, crinoids and lithistid sponges. Many of the skeletons were encrusted by microbial structures. The high density of organisms overgrowing each other points to intensive competition for space in all studied Devonian submarine crypts. The late Emsian to latest Givetian cavities were colonised by various sets of coelobiotic inhabitants mostly originating from the surrounding deep-water marine environments. It is suggested that the local species pool was a decisive factor in determining the ecological succession and taxonomic structure of cryptic communities. The changes in taxonomic composition and diversity, over time and space, were primarily related to variations in local physical environment. Consequently, the communities in crypts affected by venting of high-temperature fluids or hydrocarbon seepage were of low diversity and included endemic elements and characteristically small specimens.