Cenozoic bathyal and abyssal calcareous benthic foraminiferal zonation

Deep-sea benthic foraminifera provide a potential supplement to planktonic biostratigraphy. Benthic foraminifera are more resistant to dissolution and are often found in upper bathyal, lower abyssal, and higher latitude sediments which contain impoverished planktonic faunas. The biostratigraphic utility of benthic foraminifera was previously limited by poor understanding of their taxonomy and paleobathymetric distributions. During the past 10 yr, study of deep-sea benthic foraminifera from DSDP and industry wells has provided an improved taxonomic base and empirical observations of age-depth distributions. Building on this data base, we establish 14 bathyal and 12 abyssal zones for the Cenozoic deep sea. -from Authors