Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, Serie A 291–308 Wien, Mai 2011 113 Facies and coralline algae from Oligocene limestones in the Malaguide Complex (SE Spain) By Juan C. BRAGA  and Davide BASSI  (With 8 figures, 1 table) Manuscript submitted on August 19 th 2010, the revised manuscript on February 9 th 2011 Abstract Coralline algae are the main components of the Oligocene (Rupelian–early Chattian?) limestones in Sierra Espuña in SE Spain, one of very few localities with shallow-marine Oligocene deposits in the Iberian Peninsula. Sierra Espuña is part of the Malaguide Complex in the Internal Zones of the Betic Cordillera, which, in the Palaeogene, constituted a terrane in the western Tethys to the east of its present location. Fossil components, lithofacies, and stratigraphic patterns of the Oligocene limestones indicate that they formed on a carbonate ramp that developed on and interfingered with deltaic deposits. The innermost facies belts are packstones to mudstones rich in porcelaneous fo- raminifers. Seawards of these low-energy environments, a bioclastic belt with corals and coral- line algae passed into an area in which flat and branching corals thrived. In a deeper facies belt, rhodoliths and loose-branching and foliose coralline algae were the main sediment producers to- gether with hyaline larger benthic foraminifers. The mastophoroids Neogoniolithon and Spongites dominate the shallower coralline algal assemblages, whereas melobesioids (Lithothamnion and Mesophyllum species) and sporolithales (Sporolithon) are the most abundant components in the more diverse deeper-water assemblages. Keywords: Carbonate ramp, Oligocene, larger benthic foraminifers, Corallinales, Rhodophyta, Malaguide Complex, Betic Cordillera, SE Spain Introduction References to shallow-water Oligocene carbonates in the Iberian Peninsula are scarce, probably due to the limited extent of the few, scattered outcrops of shallow-marine rocks of this age. GEEL (2000) described the facies and foraminiferal assemblages of lower 1 Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva, 18002 Granada, Spain; e-mail: jbraga@ugr.es 2 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy; e-mail: bsd@unife.it