Paleontology Commons^™

Reconstructing Surface Water Carbonate Ion Concentration Changes In The Eastern Equatorial Pacific Across Glacial Transitions, Lenzie Gail Ward

OES Theses and Dissertations

Today, the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) plays a critical role in the global CO₂ budget as a major source of CO₂ to the atmosphere, but recent studies suggest the region may shift to a sink for atmospheric CO₂ under different climate states. Here, I focus on two transitional periods, the last deglaciation (25 kyr to present) and last glaciation (the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5a-4 transition, 96 to 60 kyr), to investigate how the carbon system in the EEP responds to major climate changes. I measured B/Ca ratios in the planktic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides from core MV1014-17JC …

Comparison Of Modern And Mid-Holocene Benthic Foraminifera To Assess Recent Environmental Change In Almirante Bay, Caribbean Panama, Maria N. Gudnitz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study used the diversity and distribution of benthic foraminiferal assemblages of Almirante Bay, Caribbean Panama, as environmental proxies to compare modern coral, seagrass and mangrove habitats to mid-Holocene coral reef facies on the island of Isla Colón, to investigate both natural and human-influenced changes.

The modern study associated species and assemblage characteristics with environmental conditions related to degraded water quality. Assemblages were fairly similar among neighboring habitats but differed in species proportions, while several stress-tolerant taxa might indicate eutrophic conditions. Diversity appeared to be regionally controlled by freshwater input irrespective of habitat type, was generally lower near the mainland …

Sediment Provenance Of Tsunami Deposits: Implications For Assessing The Relative Intensity Of Paleotsunamis From The Sendai Coastline Of Japan, Tiffany Otai

Master's Theses

The 2011 Tohoku tsunami impacted the northeastern coast of Japan and caused unexpected damages due to the underestimation of this type of hazard. Of particular importance is the fact that geologic evidence for a predecessor event, the Jogan tsunami (CE 869), could have forecasted the severity of the 2011 Tohoku event. While the timing of tsunamis is important for effective hazard mitigation, outside of the 2011 Tohoku event, the intensity of past tsunamis remains unclear. To understand paleotsunami intensity, it is important to document characteristics of modern analogues like the 2011 event. This study utilizes surface distributions of foraminifera from …

Selandian Benthic Foraminiferal Assemblages Of The Southwestern Burdur (South Of Lake Yarışlı, Western Turkey) And Some Taxonomic Revisions, Şükrü Acar

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

In this study, new genera and species are described. These three new genera are Neosistanites (type species Sistanites iranica), Parahaymanella (type species Parahaymanella hakyemezae) and Pseudohottingerina (type species Pseudohottingerina burdurensis). Neosistanites new species and new genus (N. sozerii, N. okuyucui, N. guvenci, N. dageri, N. catali, N. armagani, N. inali) and Neosistanites iranicus are defined. Parahaymanella is the new genus and its new species (P. hakyemezae, P. bozkurti and P. alanae). New species of new genus Pseudohottingerina (Ps. burdurensis and Ps. yarisliensis). Laffitteina anatoliensis, Laffitteina thraciaensis, Sirtina paleocenica, Ankaraella minima new species and Laffitteina erki, Laffitteina mengaudi, Ankaraella trochoidea species …

Biodiversity And Distribution Of Benthic Foraminifera In Harrington Sound, Bermuda: The Effects Of Physical And Geochemical Factors On Dominant Taxa, Nam Le

Honors Theses

Harrington Sound, Bermuda, is a nearly enclosed lagoon acting as a subtropical/tropical, carbonate-rich basin in which carbonate sediments, reef patches, and carbonate-producing organisms accumulate. Here, one of the most important calcareous groups is the Foraminifera. Analyses of common benthic orders, including miliolids (Quinqueloculina and Triloculina spp.) and rotaliids (Homotrema rubrum, Elphidium spp., and Ammonia beccarii), are essential in understanding past and present environmental conditions affecting the island's coastal environment. These taxa have been studied previously; however, factors explaining their individual patterns of abundance in the Sound are not well detailed. The goal of this study is …

Using Foraminifera In Stemseas Site 1 To Understand The Recent Paleoceanographic And Paleoclimatic History Of Tanner Basin, California Borderland, Michael Stanley Stone

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

In May of 2016, the STEMSEAS Educational Transit cruise OC1605-tranA collected the STEMSEAS Site 1 core from the Tanner Basin in the California Borderland. This research serves as the first formal survey of the foraminifera preserved within that core. The purpose of this research is to use foraminifera preserved within that core to understand the recent depositional and paleoenvironmental conditions at Site 1, and to place that information into a regional paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic context. In pursuing this purpose, this research aims to answer three questions: 1) Can biostratigraphic markers in the foraminiferal assemblages in STEMSEAS Site 1 core be …

Anthropogenic Infilling Of A Bermudian Sinkhole And Its Impact On Sedimentation And Benthic Foraminifera In The Adjacent Anchialine Cave Environment, Jacquelyn N. Cresswell, Peter J. Van Hengstum, Thomas M. Iliffe, Bruce E. Williams, Gil Nolan

International Journal of Speleology

In the mid-20^th century, an inland brackish pond from Bermuda, known as Eve’s Pond, was filled with marine sediment from an adjacent coastal lagoon. At this time, an eyewitness reported “…sediment billowing out of the Green Bay Cave for days…”, which is a marine-dominated anchialine cave located proximal to the former location of Eve’s Pond (~200 m). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential impact of this infilling event on cave sedimentation and benthic meiofaunal communities, as proxied by the unicellular protists foraminifera that remain preserved in the sediment record. Eight sediment cores were collected from …

Paleoecology Of Foraminifera From The Late Miocene - Early Pliocene Pullen And Saint George Formations, Northwestern California, Trenton J. Ryan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Pullen and Saint George formations are coeval late Miocene-early Pliocene sedimentary formations in northwestern California. The type localities of both formations were studied from a micropaleontologic perspective that focused primarily on Foraminifera, but with additional observations of other fossil groups to reconstruct their past depositional environments. The results obtained in this study provided a photomicrographic inventory of the microfossils from both formations, aided in investigating changes in paleobathymetry of the formations during the late Miocene and early Pliocene based on Foraminifera, and allowed for interpretation of paleoecological signals from the foraminiferan associations. Foraminifera have not been previously described in …

Oceanic Anoxia Event 2 (~94 Ma) In The U.S. Western Interior Sea: High Resolution Foraminiferal Record Of The Development Of Anoxia In A Shallow Epicontinental Sea, Amanda L. Parker

Masters Theses

The Upper Cretaceous Tropic Shale of southern Utah captures critical oceanographic changes that occurred during Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE 2) and the transgression of the Greenhorn Sea. We investigated the response of planktic and benthic foraminifera in a shallow (<100 >m) marine environment stressed by the onset of OAE 2 during the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (CTB; 93.9 Ma) to determine the oceanographic mechanisms controlling the observed turnovers in the foraminiferal record. This study is based on high-resolution quantitative foraminifera counts and isotope paleoecology (d¹⁸O and d¹³C) from a 40-m outcrop. The OAE 2 interval is identified …

Oceanographic Controls On The Expression Of Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events In The Western Interior Sea, Christopher M. Lowery

Doctoral Dissertations

The Cretaceous Period (145-66 Ma) was a time of elevated global temperatures superimposed on fluctuating climate regimes and repeated biotic turnover. It recorded several major perturbations of the carbon cycle, characterized by widespread deposition of organic-rich black shale and benthic and photic zone dysoxia to euxinia, termed oceanic anoxic events (OAEs). The Cenomanian-Turonian OAE2 and the enigmatic Coniacian-Santonian OAE3 are well-preserved in the Western Interior Sea (WIS) of North America. The expression of these OAEs in the WIS differs both from each other and from contemporaneous open-ocean sections. Despite decades of research, questions remain about the role of oceanographic parameters …

Benthic Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy Of Malatya Oligo-Miocene Succession (Eastern Taurids, Eastern Turkey), Fatma Gedi̇k

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

The benthic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of Oligo-Miocene aged Muratlı and Petekkaya formations which crop out over wide regions around Akçadağ town, west of Malatya province in Eastern Taurids were revealed in this study. Systematical sampling was carried out in measured stratigraphical sections in four locations in order to perform stratigraphical and paleontological investigations. Benthic foraminifera taken from 182 hard rock samples were defined and three biozones were determined as; SBZ 21-22, belonging to Oligocene (Rupelian - Early Chattian), SBZ 23 (Late Chattian) and SBZ 25 belonging to Lower Miocene in shallow marine deposits in the region. It was stated that the …

Reconstructing Paleoenvironments Of The Plio-Pleistocene Tamiami Formation Of Florida With Benthic Foraminifera, Heather Bender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is general agreement that a range of paleodepths and environments are represented in the individual shell units of the middle Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene Tamiami Formation of southwest Florida, but maximum depths remain poorly constrained. Here, benthic Foraminifera abundances are used as a paleoenvironmental proxy to compare the upper Tamiami from quarries in Sarasota, Florida to Recent modern coastal, bay, and reef habitats of Florida, the Grand Cayman Islands, and Puerto Rico, ranging in depth from 0 to 55 meters. I used: (1) ordination techniques, including detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and cluster analysis, to compare upper Tamiami foraminiferal assemblages …

Paleoceanography And Paleoenvironmental Changes Of The Cenomanian-Turonian Boundary Interval (94-93 Ma): The Record Of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 In The Central And Eastern Parts Of The Western Interior Sea, Khalifa Elderbak

Doctoral Dissertations

The Cenomanian/Turonian (C/T) boundary marine strata of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea (WIS) exhibit a positive carbon isotopic excursion in the bulk-carbonate and organic carbon. This marks Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE 2), which spans the uppermost part of the Hartland Shale and one-third of the overlying Bridge Creek Limestone members of the Greenhorn Formation and their equivalents. The interval is characterized by alternating beds of light-colored limestone and dark-colored marlstone and calcareous shale. These lithologic couplets have been related to Milankovitch orbital cyclicity. Foraminiferal assemblages from three selected sites, including the C/T boundary Global Boundary Stratotype Section and …

Descriptions Of Two New Families, Three New Species And Re-Description Of Four Known Genera And One Subfamily From The Larger Benthic Foraminifera Of Paleocene In Turkey, Ercüment Si̇rel

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

Two new foraminiferal families are introduced as follows: the Anatoliellidae (type
genus Anatoliella Sirel) in the superfamily Ataxophragmiacea Schwager and the family
Bolkarinidae (type genus Bolkarina Sirel) in the superfamily Orbitoidacea Schwager. Three
new species of Paleocene are described and figured as follows: Ranikothalia polatliensis,
Nurdanella paleocenica, Periloculina yilmazi. In addition, four known Paleocene genera
such as Bolkarina Sirel, Globoflarina Rahaghi, Nurdanella Özgen and Coskinon Hottinger
and Drobne and subfamily Globoflarininae are redescribed.

Late Holocene Sedimentation And Paleoenvironmental History For The Tidal Marshes Of The Potomac And Rappahannock Rivers, Tributaries To Chesapeake Bay, Neil E. Tibert, J. Bradford Hubeny, Mark Abbott, Joseph M. Kiker, Lindsay J. Walker, Shawn Mckenzie

Virginia Journal of Science

Instrumental tide gauge records indicate that the modern rates of sea-level rise in the Chesapeake Bay more than double the global average of 1.2-1.5 mm yr-1. The primary objective for this study is to establish a relative depositional history for the tidal marshes of the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that will help us improve our understanding of processes that influence sedimentation in the proximal tributaries of Chesapeake Bay. Marsh cores were collected from Blandfield Point VA, Tappahannock VA, and Potomac Creek VA. The sedimentary facies include: 1) a lower unit of organic-poor, grey clay with fine sand and silt layers …

Late Cretaceous Foraminifera As Indicators Of Sequence Boundaries, Book Cliffs, Utah, U.S.A., Kimberly A. Smith

OES Theses and Dissertations

Foraminiferal assemblages were described from three different depositional settings within the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Blackhawk Formation of Utah (known marginal marine environments, known marine environments, and along a suspected sequence boundary). Assemblages from the known marginal marine setting (as defined by sedimentologic-stratigraphic criteria) consisted of entirely agglutinated taxa dominated by Textularia sp. A. Assemblages from the known marine environment consisted of a mix of calcareous and agglutinated species, dominated by calcareous species (e.g., Gavelinella talaria). The foraminiferal assemblages from these known environments provide independent evidence that these sampled areas are characterized by marginal marine and fully marine deposits.

The foraminiferal …

Distribution Of Foraminifera And Pollen In Coastal Depositional Environments Of The Southern Delmarva Peninsula, Virginia, U.S.A., Han Jun Woo

OES Theses and Dissertations

The coastal zone of the southern Delmarva Peninsula exhibits a wide variety of barrier island system subenvironments. This study investigates whether 20 a priori subenvironments can be distinguished from each other on the basis of abiotic environmental variables, pollen assemblages, living foraminiferal populations, and total (living plus dead) foraminiferal assemblages.

The physical data collected from the coastal zone were subjected to canonical variate analysis which discriminated 83% of the stations in 19 groups. These groups were clustered into two internally overlapping sets which represented the inside and outside of the inlet.

Twenty-two pollen types were found in low-energy marsh and …

Middle Eocene Foraminifera From The Piney Point Formation Of The Virginia And Maryland Coastal Plain, Megan S. Jones

OES Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the foraminiferal fauna, both benthic and planktonic, of the outcropping (45 samples) and subsurface (31 samples) middle Eocene Piney Point Formation in Virginia and Maryland. The primary objective of this study is to further refine the depositional history of the Salisbury Embayment which is represented by the middle Eocene Piney Point Formation. Ninety-six species of benthic and planktonic foraminifera were identified in this study. Of these, several are characteristic of the middle Eocene: Asterigerina texana, Hanzawaia danvillensis, Ceratobulimina exima, Cibicides westi, Chiloguembelitria columbiana, C. stavensis, Testacarinata inconspicua and Pseudohastigerina wilcoxensislmicra. While these were relatively abundant, diagnostic middle …

Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy And Paleoenvironmental Analysis Of The Anahuac Formation (Late Oligocene-Early Miocene) From A Deep Well In Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, Audrey Lynne Orndorff

OES Theses and Dissertations

In the subsurface of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, sediments from the Anahuac Formation in the #1 J. W. Steen well are assigned an Upper Oligocene-Lower Miocene age based on planktonic foraminifera. Previous age determinations for sediments from this formation elsewhere range from Middle to Late Oligocene based on the presence of larger foraminifera contained within these strata. Planktonic foraminifera in Anahuac formation sediments in the #1 J. W. Steen well permit their assignment to an established worldwide zonation scheme and indicate that the age ranges from the Globorotalia kugleri Interval Zone (Upper Oligocene) to the Catapsydrax dissimilis Zone (Lower Miocene). Benthic …

Benthic Foraminifera And Paleoenvironments Of The Arcola Limestone Member Mooreville Formation (Campanian) In Eastern Mississippi And Western Alabama, Julia K. Palmer

OES Theses and Dissertations

Eighty-one species of benthic foraminifera have been recovered from chalky marls of the upper Mooreville Formation including the Arcola Limestone Member, and the basal Demopolis Formation located in five sections in east-central Mississippi and west-central Alabama. These species have been described and seventy-nine illustrated. Analysis of the environmental or depth preferences of abundant species together with planktonic percentages and benthic species diversity, indicates that the chalky marls were deposited in a broad shallow shelf sea (subtidal conditions less than 100m) greatly influenced by open ocean conditions. The benthic assemblage is composed of a mixture of typically neritic and bathyal species …

Foraminiferal Paleoenvironments Of The Eastover Formation (Upper Miocene Virginia), Joann H. Goshorn

OES Theses and Dissertations

Sixty-two taxa representing 29 genera from 39 foraminiferal sample pairs have been documented and analyzed in a paleoenvironmental study of the Eastover Formation in southeastern Virginia. The Eastover Formation consists of a lower Claremont Manor Member, a silt fine-grained sand and an upper Cobham Bay Member, a shelly fine grained sand. Planktonic specimens were rare and indicated a late Miocene to early Pliocene age for the Eastover Formation. Benthics were used to interpret paleoenvironments by comparison with data from the distribution of Recent foraminifera, species diversity, planktonic to benthic ratios, and sediment analyses. The foraminifera indicate that the Eastover Formation …