Annual Report 2011 of the Working Group on Paleogene Larger Foraminifera.

Unfortunately, the chairman Lukas Hottinger died recently, he could not send the report and we are looking for a new chairman.


Annual Report 2009-2010 of the Working Group on Paleogene Larger Foraminifera.

I have been discharged two years ago from the responsibility of leading the working group of larger foraminifera. Therefore I can give you only my personal contributions of the matter at hand. My state of health does not permit me to do fieldwork anymore but there are many corpses in the cellar awaiting a decent burial. Thus, I have finished and published a monograph on the Miscellaneidae and am working now on a revision of the larger Tethyan Paleogene Rotaliidae, mainly from Pakistan and Oman. This paper is scheduled to go to print in the same place in spring next year. Publications on paper take more and more time and increasing amounts of funding to be published. I have no more energy and time to wait. At request of the Museum Basel I just finished a bibliographic list of 2009:

Hottinger, L. (2009). The Paleocene and Earliest Eocene foraminiferal family Miscellaneidae: neither nummulitids nor rotaliids. Carnets de Géologie, article 2009/06, PDF p. 1-41.

Bassi, D., Hottinger, L. & Iryu, Y. (2009). Reassessment of "Boueina" pacifica Ishijima 1978 (Orbitolininae, Foraminiferida). Formerly considered as a green halimedacean alga. Journal Foraminiferal Research. 39 (2), 120-125.

Hottinger, L. & Caus, E. (2009). Meandropsinidae, an ophtalmidid family of Late Cretaceous K-stragegist foraminifera endemic in the Pyrenean Gulf. Neues Jahrbuch Geologie Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, vol. 253, no. 2-3, p. 249-279.

Boix, C., Vilalonga, R., Caus, E. & Hottinger, L. (2009). Late Cretaceous rotaliids (Foraminiferida) from the Western Tethys. Neues Jahrbuch Geologie Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 253, 197-227.

Vicedo, V,. Aguilar, M., Caus, E. & Hottinger, L. (2009). Fusiform and laterally compressed alveolinaceans (Foraminiferida) from both sides of the Late Cretaceous Atlantic. Neues Jahrbuch Geologie Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 253 (2-3), 229-247.

Report by Lukas Hottinger, Chairman of the Larger Foraminifera Working Group.


Working Group on Paleogene Larger Foraminifera – Report 2006 & 2007

Larger foraminifera are of increasing importance for dating shallow water carbonate deposits where sequence stratigraphy and geochemical stratigraphy meet with increasing problems and where planktonic organisms are absent. In addition, the complex morphology of the larger foraminifera that registers ontogeny, their abundance in the sediment and their response to environmental requirements provide new or more detailed insight into the mechanisms of community maturation and evolutionary processes. The Paleogene epoch starting after the K-T boundary event from scrap documents the maturation of the benthic communities much better than the Late Cretaceous cycles before and the Neogene cycles after this epoch that is characterized by a long duration of climatic and biological stability. In a period in which biology searches, beyond molecular mechanisms, for new approaches to more complex systems and returns to organismic biology, the historical dimension of life on Earth as recorded by fossils is fundamental.

We are happy to announce, after several years, substantial progress in the following fields:

1. Biozonation: G. LESS and coauthors have extended the Shallow Benthic Zonation based on biometry to the nummulitic genera Heterostegina (1) and Spiroclypeus (2) that confirm a revised zonation of orthophragminids troughout the Eocene (3, 4) and the one of the nummulitids of the Middle and Late Eocene and permit to subdivide these zones into subzones.

2. Contributions to the knowledge on regional faunas, their composition, ecology and age: With the work of E. SIREL (5) and the intensive activity of E. ÖZCAN (6), the focus of interest is directed to the immense potential of research in Turkey where the Paleogene lithology, the ecological variation and the relative completeness of the fossil record offer possibilities that are at least equivalent to the ones in the Pyrenees (7). The Turkish faunas will provide a key to the Middle Eastern hotspot (8) of diversity in Late Middle Eocene to Oligocene times that characterizes the so-called Lockhartia Sea. The full diversity will be recognized when the current studies on the SaltRange in Pakistan by A. BUTT and co-workers (9, 10), on Oman and on Sokotra by J. SERRA-KIEL and co-workers will be completed.
On the Adriatic carbonate platform the Paleogene succession starts early in SBZ 1 that contains an elphidiid index used for years but formally described only now: Bangiana hanseni (11) with its associated and subsequent Paleocene faunas (12). In the Carpathians M. TISCHLER (13) has found Late Middle Eocene porcelaneous faunas that clearly belong to a "Mediterranean" faunal province with Borelis vonderschmitti whereas the Apulian platform (14) was immerged by the Lockhartia Sea with Neorhipidionina. The Trentinara formation characterizing the Lower to Middle Eocene deposits on the Eastern side of the Apulian platform has produced Alveolinids (15), a particular Periloculina (16), conical agglutinated (17) and rotaliid foraminifera with a considerable number of new taxa that are found also in Iran and Pakistan. In Spain, investigations of the Paleocene faunas from the Betic realm are in progress.

3. Facies analysis of Priabonian shallow-water carbonate successions in the outcrops near Mossano (eastern Colli Berici, north-eastern Italy) and on Mt. Klokova (Greece) have been used to produce detailed palaeoenvironmental models. The facies distribution and the processes which controlled the larger benthic foraminiferal and coralline algal assemblages are discussed in detail in terms of palaeoecology and benthic community structure (18-20).
The term "Facies Dynamics" is introduced. This concept aims to define and interpret spatial and temporal changes of carbonate facies patterns. It is based on Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene shallow-water carbonate facies types from the circumalpine area (north-eastern Italy, northern Slovenia, Austria and southern Bavaria), which are compared with respect to dominating biogenic components and their distribution along the depth gradient on the shelves (21).

4. The marginal basins around the core of the Tethys are of particular interest for a better understanding of the response of larger foraminifera to different kinds of stress. Intensive studies by ZAKREVSKAYA and coworkers have updated and detailed the taxonomy of nummulites and orthophragminids from the North-Eastern Peritethys and assessed their biostratigraphic ranges. New endemic or facies-dependant particular species are described (22), their age correlated with cosmopolitan species to the SBZ zonation and where ever possible with planktonic organisms (23-26). ZAKREVSKAYA's studies cover an immense surface reaching from the Crimea and the Northern Caucasus to Mangyschlak and the Northern Peri-Aralian (27). They demonstrate the decrease of the diversity of the larger foraminifera with time and with the increasing distance from the Tethyan oceanic core.
In the Aquitaine, K. SZTRAKOS investigated benthic foraminifera from numerous boreholes. The Cuisian alveolinid faunas recovered from these boreholes contain A. canavarii, a typical member of the Mediterranean assemblages that complements the occasional occurrences of mediterranean assilinid and alveolinid species in the Lower Lutetian. This suggests that the Aquitaine, during Lower and early Middle Eocene at least, was not a true marginal basin but submitted to particular local environmental conditions and calls for additional investigations of the facies in the Central Pyrenees that contain higher contents of carbonate. The northern, clearly marginal basins in Belgium show occasional incursions of low-diverse, often monospecific nummulite faunas currently under investigation by J. BACCAERT (28).

5. The limits between Late Eocene and Oligocene, with the substitution of the orthophragminids by the lepidocyclinids as well as the Oligo-Miocene have again entered in the focus of biostratigraphical research on larger foraminifera. During the last 2-3 years, the larger foraminifera (mainly Nephrolepidina, Eulepidina and Miogysinids, but also all the nummulitids) of the Oligocene and the early Miocene were sampled from shallow-marine successions located in SW Turkey (successions overlying the early Tertiary units of the Bey Da_lar¦ carbonate platform between Denizli and Antalya), in the Sivas Basin in central Turkey and in the Mu_ Basin in eastern Turkey. Whenever possible, pelagic faunas and floras have also been studied and integrated. The evolutionary scheme for Nephrolepidina proposed in European localities is not totally applicable here since the early Miocene specimens have quite primitive features (in the Sivas and Mu_ basins). The Mu_ basin provided a continuous section with about 20 successive horizons with larger foraminifera of Rupelian to Chattian age (29).
A moderately diverse larger foraminiferal fauna from the north-eastern Italian ‘Arenarie e calcari di S. Urbano’ formation with important stratigraphic, palaeoecologic and palaeobiogeographic implications is described with respect to its position from the Western Tethys area. The presence of Archaias hensoni SMOUT and EAMES shows that some members of the much more diverse Middle Eastern associations of shallow water larger porcelaneous foraminifera are also present in the north-western parts of the Western Tethys. This reveals the presence of a diversity gradient among larger foraminiferal faunas in the Western Tethys that may be related to a decrease in temperature along a geographical gradient (30).

6. Paleobiogeography: A significant and consistent paleobiogeographic analysis of the Paleogene larger foraminifera needs a paleogeographic base with sufficient details to map climatic gradients and oceanic current patterns to be correlated with the distribution patterns of the taxa. Usually, we have to operate on the species level in order to get significant results. The taxa have to be conceived in a way that is consistant at least within the group considered. The first attempts in this direction are still rather far from satisfactory (31, 32).

7. Structural analyses and functional morphology of Paleogene larger foraminifera: Comparative anatomy and structural analysis need a standartised vocabulary to designate the structural elements in a consistant way. Therefore, an illustrated glossary was prepared and presented at the Forams 2006 congress in Brazil (33, 34). The functional significance of the "face" of selected benthic foraminifera (35), of ornamental features such as papillae as collectors of light for the symbiosis (36) and the meaning of meandrine structures repeated in unrelated groups of larger forams (37) were investigated. J. BARTHOLDI presented his thesis on the structure of Nummulites in 2002 (38) where such meandrine structures are frequent.

References:

1. LESS, G., ÖZCAN, E., PAPAZZONI C.A. & STOCKAR, R. in press. – Middle to Late Eocene evolution of involute Heterostegina, nummulitid Foraminifera, in the Western Tethys. – Acta Palaeotol. Polonica.
2. LESS, G. & ÖZCAN, E. in press. - Late Eocene evolution of Spiroclypeus, nummulitid Foraminifera, in the Western Tethys. - Acta Palaeontol. Polonica.
3. ÖZCAN, E., LESS, G., BALDI-BEKE, M., KOLLANY, K., & KERTESZ, B. 2007.- Biometric analysis of Middle and Upper Eocene Discocyclinidae and Orbitoclypeidae (Foraminifera) from Turkey and updated orthophragmine zonation in the Wesren Tethys. micropaleontology 52: 485 – 520.
4. LESS GY., ÖZCAN, E., BÁLDI-BEKE M. & KOLLÁNYI K. (2007): Thanetian and early Ypresian orthophragmines (Foraminifera: Discocyclinidae and Orbitoclypeidae) from the central Western Tethys (Turkey, Italy and Bulgaria) and their revised taxonomy and biostratigraphy. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 113, 3, 419–448.
5. SIREL, E. 2004.- Türkiye'nin Mesozoyik ve Senozoyik Yeni Bentik Foraminiferleri. – Ankara (TMMOB Jeoloji Mühendisleri Odasi 84), 219 pp. 66 pls.
6. ÖZCAN, E., LESS, G. & KERTESZ, B. 2007.- Late Ypresian to Middle Lutetian Orthophragminid record from Central and Northern Turkey: Taxonomy and remarks on zonal scheme. – Turkish J. Earth Sciences 16: 281 – 318.
7. LESS GY. & Ó. KOVÁCS L. (in press): Typological versus morphometric separation of orthophragminid species in single samples – a case-study from Horsarrieu (upper Ypresian, SW Aquitaine, France). Revue de Micropaléontologie
8. HOTTINGER, L. 2007.- Revision of the foraminiferal genus Globoreticulina RAHAGHI, 1978, and of its associated fauna of larger foraminifera from the late Middle Eocene of Iran. Notebooks on Geology (Brest), CG2007-A06, pp. 1-51, 3 Figs., 15 Pls.
9. SAMEENI. S. J. & BUTT, A.A. 2004.- Alveolinid biostratigraphy of the Salt Range succession, Northern Pakistan. Revue Paleobiologie, 23(2):505-527 and corrigendum—ibid. 2005 - 24(2): 803-805.
10. GHAZI, S., BUTT, A.A. & ASHRAF, M. 2006.- Microfacies analysis and diagenesis of the Lower Eocene Sakesar Limestone, Nilawahan Gorge, central Salt Range, Pakistan. Jour. Nepal Geol. Soc., 33: 23-32.
11. DROBNE, K., OGORELEC B. & RICCAMBONI, R. 2007.- Bangiana hanseni n. gen. n. sp. (Foraminifera), index species of Danian age (Lower Paleocene) from the Adiatic carbonate platform in SW Slovenia, NE Italy and Herzegovina. - Razprave IV. Razreda SAZU (Ljubljiana). 48: 5-71, 31 Figs., 12 Pls.
12. OGORELEC, B., DROBNE, K., JURKOV_EK, B., DOLENEC, T. & TOMAN. M. 2001.- Paleocene beds of the Liburnia Formation in _ebulovica (Slovenia, NW Adriatic – Dinaric platform). Geologija, (Ljubljana), 44/1, 15 – 65, 12 Figs., 11 Pls.
13. TISCHLER, M. & HOTTINGER, L. in preparation.- Paleogene larger foraminifera from the carbonate sediment cover of the Preluca Massif and the Radua Horst (Rumanian Carpathians).
14. SARTORIO, D. & HOTTINGER, L. in preparation. - Neorhipidionina uranensis (Henson), a Middle-Eastern porcelaneous foraminifer on the Apulian carbonate platform.
15. VECCHIO, E., BARATTOLO, F. & HOTTINGER, L. 2007.- Alveolina horizons in the Trentinara Formation (Southern Apennines, Italy): stratigraphic and paleogeographic implications. Rivista Italiana Paleontologia e Stratigrafia Vol. 113/1, pp. 21 - 42.
16. VECCHIO, E. & BARATTOLO, F. 2006.- Periloculina (?) decastroi n. sp., a new foraminifer from the Eocene (uppermost Ypresian - lowermost Lutetian) Trentinara Formation (southern Apennines, Italy). BARATTOLO F. & VECCHIO E. Eds., Paleontology and stratigraphy in the Mediterranean palaeogeography, Naples, 20-21 June 2005. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana Vol. 45/1, pp. 147-158.
17. VECCHIO, E. & HOTTINGER, L. 2007. – Agglutinated conical foraminifera from the Lower-Middle Eocene of the Trentinara Formation (southern Italy). – Facies (Erlangen), 53/4: 509 - 533.
18. BASSI, D. 2005a. – Larger foraminiferal and coralline algal facies in an Upper Eocene storm-influenced, shallow water carbonate platform (Colli Berici, north-eastern Italy). Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 226: 17-35.
19. BASSI, D. 2005b. – The Upper Eocene crustose coralline algal pavement in the Colli Berici, north-eastern Italy. Annali Univ. Ferrara, sez. Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica, vol. spec.: 63-74.
20. BARATTOLO, F., BASSI, D. & ROMANO, R. 2007.- Upper Eocene larger foraminiferal-coralline algal facies from the Klokova Mountain (Southern continental Greece). Facies, 53: 361-375.
21. NEBELSICK, J.H., RASSER, M. & BASSI, D. 2005. – Facies dynamics in Eocene to Oligocene circumalpine carbonates. Facies, 51: 197-216.
22. ZAKREVSKAYA, E.YU. 2004a. - On “Paleocene” Nummulites from Mangyshlak. - Paleontological Journal. Moscow: Nauka. 38, No. 5: 469 – 478 (in English).
23. ZAKREVSKAYA, E.YU. 2004b. - Distribution of larger foraminifera near the Lower-Middle Eocene boundary in the Northeastern Peritethys. - N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Abh., Stuttgart, 234 (1-3): 335-360
24. ZAKREVSKAYA E.YU. 2007. – The late Paleocene species Discocyclina seunesi Douv. in the Eastern Crimea. Paleontological studies in Ukraine: history, present-day state and prospects. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov IGS NASU. Kiev. pp. 228-232. (in Russian)
25. ZAKREVSKAYA, E.YU. 2005a. - Stratigraphic distribution of Larger Foraminifera in the Paleogene of Northeastern Peritethys. - Stratigraphy and Geological correlation, 13, No. 1: 59-79 (in English)
26. ZAKREVSKAYA, E., STUPIN, S. & BUGROVA, E. in press - Larger foraminiferal distribution in Eocene hemipelagic deposits of the Western Caucasus (Southern Slope) and their correlation with planktic foraminifera. – Spec. Number of Geologica Acta. (Intern. Meet. Climate and biota of the early Paleogene, Bilbao, June 2006).
27. ZAKREVSKAYA E.YU. 2005b. – The regularities of larger foraminifera distribution in Paleocene-Eocene. - Micropaleontology in Russia on a boundary of centuries. Proceeding vol. Moscow, 2005. P. 20-21. (in Russian)
28. BACCAERT, J. 2007.- Analysis of some nummulite populations of the Belgian Early Eocene and (re)determination of their taxa. Abstract RCNNS meeting Krakow, Sept. 07.
29. ÖZCAN, E., LESS GY., BÁLDI-BEKE M., KOLLÁNYI K. & ACAR, F., Oligo-Miocene Foraminiferal Record (Miogypsinidae, Lepidocyclinidae and Nummulitidae) from the Western Taurides (SW, Turkey): biometry and implications for the Regional Geology: Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (in review).
30. BASSI, D., HOTTINGER, L. & NEBELSICK, J.H. 2007. – Larger foraminifera from the Late Oligocene of the Venetian area, north-eastern Italy. Palaeontology, 50: 845-868.
31. DROBNE, K. & HOTTINGER, L. 2004. – Larger Miliolid Foraminifera in Time and Space. – Bulletin Academie Serbe Sciences et Arts, Sciences Naturelles no. 42: 83 – 99.
32. BASSI, D., CIRILLO, S., NEBELSICK, J.H., HOTTINGER, L. & BRAGA, J.C. in preparation. – Oligocene diversity patterns in larger foraminifera: perspectives to Tethyan palaeobiogeography.
33. HOTTINGER, L. 2006.- Illustrated glossary of terms used in foraminiferal research.- Notebooks on Geology, Brest, Memoir 2006/2, 126 p. 83 figs. Electronic publication: http://paleopolis.rediris.es/cg/uk_index.html_MO2 pdf 1- 4.
34. BASSI, D., FUGAGNOLI, A. & HOTTINGER, L. 2006. – Foraminiferal shell structures – 1st and 2nd part. Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Ferrara, sez. Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica, vol. 2 (1). http://eprints.unife.it/annali/museologia/vol2.htm
35. HOTTINGER, L. 2006.- The "face" of benthic foraminifera. Bolletino Società Paleontologica Italiana (Modena) vol. 45 (1): 75-89.
36. HOTTINGER, L. 2006.- The depth-depending ornamentation of some lamellar-perforate foraminifera. Symbiosis vol. 42: 141 -151.
37. HOTTINGER, L. 2005.- Geometrical constraints in foraminiferal architecture: consequences of change from planispiral to annular growth. Studia geologica polonica 124: 99-115.
38. BARTHOLDY, J. 2002.- The Architecture of Nummulites (Foraminifera) reexamined. – PhD thesis Freie Universität Berlin. 64 pp., 22 figs,. 16 pls.

Report by Lukas Hottinger, Chairman of the Larger Foraminifera Working Group.