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University of Paris-Sud, URA 723 — Département des Sciences de la Terre, Laboratoire d’Hydrologie, Bâtiment 504, F91405 ORSAY Cedex, France
The variability of mangrove environments (mangals) has generally been underestimated, as has their distribution from temperate to subequatorial climates and their histories in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific biogeographic provinces. Subtropical, arid and equatorial mangals require different palaeoecological approaches. In situ fossilization is paradoxically very rare, and has often been misinterpreted, but current reworked shells, and human shell gathering (middens) provide valuable records of ancient mangals. The identification of ancient mangroves depends on the preservation of pollen or wood while the upward branching root system of Avicennia is another reliable indicator. The associated molluscan fauna may also be diagnostic, particularly if encrusting oysters are preserved with imprints of mangrove roots and bark. Several case studies are briefly reviewed and discussed: Holocene buried mangals of Abu Dhabi, Holocene shell middens of the Middle East, Miocene Japanese and European mangals documented by molluscs and pollen, and the Paleocene-Eocene mangals of western Europe. Problems concerning the evolution of the mangal biota and the differences between their distribution in ancient and modern climates forms the basis for discussion of the palaeogeographic and climatic significance of the palaeomangals reviewed in this paper.
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