Review of Miocene larger foraminifera
Miocene larger foraminifera were generally restricted to shallow (<100m), warm, clear, normal marine environments and were primarily dependent on brief drifting of juveniles and rafting on vegetation for dispersal. These factors are reflected in both regional and local occurrences. Regional occurrences of Miocene larger foraminifera vary with bio-province and time. Three main foraminiferal provinces (Central American, Mediterranean, and Indo-West Pacific) developed through a combination of tectonics, eustasy, climate, and faunal evolution and migration. Important effects of Miocene tectonics included widening of the Atlantic, early Miocene occlusion of the western neo-Tethys, and northern movement of the Australian plate into the tropics. Changes in climate primarily expanded or constricted latitudinal provincial boundaries. Eustatic sea level variations caused by the destruction of the late Miocene Mediterranean fauna. Globally, Miocene faunas underwent a progressive loss of taxa. This is particularly noticeable in post-early Miocene faunas of the Mediterranean and Central American provinces. Although post-early Miocene taxa evolved in all three areas, faunal migration was prevented by environmental barriers. For a given time and province, the occurrence of larger foraminifera in well-preserved Miocene reef facies is related to paleoenvironmental factors of water depth, turbidity, water energy, and substrate and to post-mortem processes of transport and selective test destruction. Environmentally related changes in test morphology, together with the relative abundances of planktonic species and small benthic taxa, allow an estimation of the magnitude of the various environmental factors, even without detailed foraminiferal taxonomy.
- OSTI ID:
- 6503943
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-880301-
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
ASIA
BENTHOS
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
BIOLOGY
CENOZOIC ERA
CENTRAL AMERICA
CHEMISTRY
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
EXPLORATION
FORAMINIFERA
GEOCHEMISTRY
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
INDONESIA
INVERTEBRATES
ISLANDS
LATIN AMERICA
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MICROORGANISMS
MINERAL RESOURCES
MIOCENE EPOCH
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
PACIFIC OCEAN
PALEONTOLOGY
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
PROTOZOA
REEFS
RESOURCES
SARCODINA
SEAS
SURFACE WATERS
TAXONOMY
TERTIARY PERIOD