The centre of reef diversity moves east
As the Tethys closes, the world's richest reefs shift from the Mediterranean region toward Southeast Asia.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 7 million years
- Known to
- ± 3 million years
- Era
- Oligocene, Cenozoic
Through the Eocene the great centre of tropical marine diversity lay in the western Tethys, around what is now the Mediterranean and Middle East. As that seaway closes and cools, the centre migrates east, and by the Miocene it sits in the Indo-Australian archipelago, where it remains today — the Coral Triangle. It is a striking case of the world's single richest marine region being a product of plate tectonics rather than of anything intrinsic to the place.