Paleogene planktonic foraminifer magnetobiostratigraphy of the southern Kerguelen Plateau (Sites 747-749)

Abstract

The stratigraphic distribution of about 70 taxa of planktonic foraminifers recovered at Sites 747-749 is reported. Faunas exhibited fairly high diversity in the early Eocene, followed by a gradual reduction in diversity in the middle Eocene. A brief incursion of tropical keeled morozovellids occurred near the Paleocene/Eocene boundary. The high-latitude Paleogene zonal scheme developed for ODP Leg 113 sites has been adopted (with minor modifications) for the lower Eocene-Oligocene part of the Kerguelen Plateau record. A representative Oligocene and late Eocene-late middle Eocene magnetostratigraphic record has allowed the calibration of several biostratigraphic datum levels to the standard Global Polarity Time Scale (GPTS) and established their essential synchrony between low and high latitudes. -from Author