The Neogene stratigraphic record of Crete is well-widespread all over the island. Neogene carbonate strata of West Crete comprise several bio-and lithofacies that represent various depositional environments. The present work is based on the study of an outcrop exposed along the eastern coast of Chania city. With a length of 1900 metres and a thickness of 45 metres, it can be subdivided into four distinct lithofacies (A to D). From the base to the top, the succession is composed by two sets of sands (a reddish and a yellowish one, parts A and B respectively), passing upwards into rhythmical marine, coralline-red-algal carbonate facies (C) that underlie neritic bioclastic limestones (D). It is the first time that such an occurrence of coralline algae is described from western Crete, therefore the present work is mainly concentrated in this facies (C) in particular. Rhodoliths are mainly nodular structures composed of the superimposed thalli of calcareous red algae. The dominant biological feature of coralline algae of the succession corresponds to an array of palaeo-environmental conditions; the structure and appearance of their development are interpreted to be related as to a transgressive–highstand cycle of relative sea-level change. These built ups are typical for the Mediterranean region, as a result of events predating the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) onset, when the Mediterranean all dried up; rhodolith beds were widespread in Miocene platform carbonate and siliciclastic deposits in the Mediterranean and Paratethys(Halfar, 2005; Braga, 2017). Estimates based on paleoreconstructions and actualistic comparisons with the depthdistribution of living rhodoliths comprising similar coralline algal assemblages, suggest a wide range of palaeodepths of growth ranging from 10–100 m(Brandano, 2005; Puga-Bernabéu, 2007).
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