American Larger benthic Foraminifers

Introduction

Larger benthic foraminifers (LBF) are abundant in many Cretaceous and Cenozoic rocks in the Americas. We are currently revising occurrences and developing a biostratigraphy. Links are provided below for some of this work.

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is characterised by the development of many groups of orbitoid foraminifers, of which the genera Pseudorbitoides and Orbitoides are probably the most significant. Secimens in rock are difficult to identify, but free specimens (from poorly indurated rocks or weathering out in soils above exposures) can be used with great advantage. Other groups are also present, and free specimens are great to work with.

Paleogene

Our main focus at the moment is understadnig the evolution of the LBF in the Paleogene. We are establishing a high-resolution stratigraphy for the paleogene of the Americas. This will be published as a series of papers and also presentations (which ara available below).