Autochthonous and displaced (allochthonous) Cretaceous benthic foraminifers from Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 77, Sites 535, 536, 537, 538, and 540, Gulf of Mexico.

Abstract

At all sites, benthic foraminifer assemblages consist mainly of mixed bathyal and neritic forms, with neritic material at times strongly diluting and masking the autochthonous bathyal fauna. The recurrent bathyal assemblage is indicative of water depths of 1000-1500m with a possible increase to 1500m or greater in the Late Cretaceous. Maximum influx of shallow-water and reworked material occurs in two pulses - in the Valanginian, and from the latest Albian through middle Cenomanian.-from Authors