Abstract:

The maturity of Carboniferous reefs is low in the southern China. The reef-building organism is very monotonous, only one or two main builders in each reef-building stage. The reefs are all relatively small and are not broadly distributed. The Carboniferous reefs of southern China reveal that reef development is a gradual re-establishment process after the reef-building community having completely collapsed by the extinction event in late Devonian. There was worldwide absence of metazoan framework reef in Carboniferous, but larger size metazoan framework reefs developed in Early and Late Carboniferous of the southern China. This is the most important feature of the Carboniferous reefs in the southern China.

Key words: reef, Carboniferous, the southern China