CHITONS (MOLLUSCA, POLYPLACOPHORA) FROM BIOGENIC SEDIMENTS OF THE IFATY-TULEAR BACK REEFS (SOUTHWESTERN MADAGASCAR)

Disarticulated plates belonging to Polyplacophora (chitons) may occasionally represent a (relatively) significant component of fossil and recent biogenic sediments, most typically sourced from hard-bottom intertidal and shallow-sublittoral environments. Coral reefs are no exception to this general rule and related sediments may, therefore, contain chiton plates. A case in point is represented by the coarse-grained skeletal sediments forming around coral reefs in the region of Ifaty-Tulear (Madagascar, western Indian Ocean) surveyed in 1995 in the frame of the European Programme “Testreef”. As many as 17 species of Polyplacophora have been identified within the sandy fraction of sediments collected by SCUBA divers from various stations located in the back-reef lagoons of Tulear and Ifaty, and Nossi Ve’. Most of the species recognised in our samples were already known to occur in Madagascar.

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