“…In the history of reef building on Earth dominated by solitary or poorly calcified biota, the Middle Palaeozoic stands out as one of rare intervals that saw reefs dominated by assemblages of massive, possibly photosymbiotic organisms resembling modern reefal ecosystems (Copper, ; Cowen, ; Kiessling, ; Kiessling, Flugel, & Golonka, ; Sepkoski, ; Talent, ; Wood, , ; Zapalski, Nowicki, et al, ). The dominant Silurian and Devonian reef builders included stromatoporoid sponges and colonial tabulate and rugose corals, with various contribution of calcimicrobes, solitary rugosans, crinoids, and brachiopods (Copper, , ; Machel & Hunter, ; MacNeil & Jones, ; Shen, Webb, & Jell, ; Zapalski, Hubert, Nicollin, Mistaen, & Brice, ).…”