PALEONTOLOGY AND PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF THE TETHYIAN AGGLUTINATED BENTHIC FORAMINIFERAL SPECIES OF THE GENUS SPIROPLECTINELLA

Abstract

Thirty three small diagnostic benthic foraminiferal species of the Textulariid genus Spiroplectinella are common in the Late Cretaceous-Neogene rocks from many Tethyan localities: North Atlantic (USA, Mexico, Caribbean), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador), Europe (North Sea, Norway, Spain, France, Poland, Czech, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkmenistan), North Africa (Tunisia, Egypt), Southwest Asia (Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, UAE, Iran, Pakistan) and Indian Ocean (Australia, Antarctic Basin). These diagnostic species are: Spiroplectinella adamsi, baudouiniana, carinata, chicoana, costata, cretosa, dalmatina, dentata, deperdita, desertorum, elongata, esnaensis, excolata, hamdani, henryi, israelski, jarvisi, knebeli, laevis, longa, nuttalli, paleocenica, paracarinata, pectinatiforma, plummerae, praelonga, richardi, rossae, semicomplanata, sigmoidina, subhaeringensis, wilcoxensis and wrightii. The paleontology, stratigraphy, paleoenvironment and paleogeographic distribution of them in the Tethys are presented.

Keywords

• foraminifera
• cretaceous
• paleogene
• neogene
• paleontology
• stratigraphy
• paleogeography
• paleoecology
• paleoenvironment.