Atlas of Paleocene Planktonic Foraminifera. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, Number 85

摘要

The Paleogene Planktonic Foraminifera Working Group of the International Subcommission on Paleogene Stratigraphy, International Union of Geological Sciences, was formed in 1987 following a meeting (organized by W.A. Berggren) at the British Petroleum Research Centre in Sunbury on Thames, U.K., of researchers interested in improving the understanding of Paleogene planktonic foraminiferal taxonomy and lineage phylogenies. The consensus of the meeting was that a concerted effort among workers was needed to unravel conflicting taxonomic usages of Paleogene taxa due to misunderstanding and lack of access to type collections, particularly in the former Soviet Union. The origins of many of the important biostratigraphic lineages was obscure so that the radiation of Paleogene planktonic foraminifera was poorly understood, and, in fact, some long-held concepts proved to be erroneous. Some of the important questions included the origin of the basal Cenozoic radiation, the taxa involved and how to distinguish them, the origin of the genus Acarinina, and the phylogeny of the morozovellids. In the following years, important breakthroughs in research led to the evolution of the working group's understanding of the taxonomy and phylogeny of Paleogene planktonic foraminifera.