Oligocene Planktonic Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy: Current State of the Art and New Calibrations

Abstract

Extinction and evolutionary events in planktonic foraminifera are extensively employed in regional and global biostratigraphy and are a fundamental component of Cenozoic chronostratigraphy. The calibration of planktonic foraminiferal events has been based largely on correlations to the magnetostratigraphy in Deep Sea Drilling Project and Ocean Drilling Programme cores, as well as to outcrop sections (Berggren et al. 1995; Wade et al. 2011). However, the calibration of many Palaeogene planktonic foraminiferal events has been hindered by poor core recovery, the absence of biogenic carbonate, and a lack of magnetostratigraphic and/or cyclostratigraphic age control.