Upper Paleocene-lower Eocene radiolarian biostratigraphy of the San Francisco de Paula section, western Cuba: Regional and global comparisons

摘要

In response to a growing need to define the Paleocene/Eocene boundary and record the events which imediately pre- ceded and followed it within a 5 my span, the San francisco de Paula section of western Cuba was evaluated for its potential as a bound- ary stratotype. Radiolarians, reported in previous studies by Cuban geologists as a major component of the faunal assemblages in this section, have been recollected and reanalyzed to determine their stratigraphic utility for recognition of the Paleocene/Eocene boundary in Cuba. On the basis of this and other recent microfossil studies of the San Francisco de Paula section, it is now known that the Paleocene/Eocene boundary in this succession is within an unconformity. Its placement herein is based on the highest occurrence of the Planktonic foraminifera Morozovella velascoensis (Fernandez-Rodriguez et al. 1999, this volume).