Bivalves and Bivalve Habitats in the Northern Red Sea The Northern Bay of Safaga (Red Sea, Egypt): An Actuopalaeontological Approach, Part 6: Bivalvia

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The Northem Bay of Safaga is a shallow-water bay with highly structured bottom topography extending down to more than 50 m water depth. The authors studied more than 18000 individuals from 100 quantitative samples (13 from sediments, 87 from hard substrata), 37 qualitative samples (36 from
sediments, 1 from hard substrata) and numerous unsystematic collections, and extracted 218 species; for most of them they provide detailed habitat information.

A quantitative analysis shows that bivalve death assemblages in sediments and bivalve life assemblages on hard substrata match very well with bottom facies. In contrast, bivalve death assemblages on hard substrata have a very low spatial resolution pattem. Major differences between bivalve life and death assemblages on hard substrata are therefore evident. These differences can be attributed to the logistics of the sampling method, which provided a strong bias against dead bivalves that lived in close association with living corals.

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