PREFACE

There is a resurgence of interest in the subject of Micropaleontology after a period of relative quiescence caused by a slowdown in exploration by the oil industry. Micropaleontology developed as a discipline in the 1940's and 50's when the war effort required more information about the ocean floor and post-war growth in exploration coupled with economic prosperity that resulted in increased science funding. Micropaleontology flourished during the 1960's and 70's when most of the marine microplankton biostratigraphies were developed. This became possible partly due to the availability of the relatively continuous and well-preserved stratigraphic record of the deep sea from all major ocean basins recovered by the Deep Sea Drilling Project and its successor, the Ocean Drilling Program. Higher resolution microscopic and analytical techniques also became available during this period. Accurate age determination amd paleoenvironmental/paleoceanographic reconstructions aided by the new biostratigraphic schemes enhanced not only the study of Earth History but also in oil exploration which was perhaps its greatest beneficiary. Exploration was at its peak at that time, and micropaleontologists, armed with their new skills, readily found employment. All of this came to a serious slowdown in the mid 1980s when the price of oil fell below sustainable levels for the industry and new exploration became its first casualty. Industry-wide suspension of new ventures meant loss of interest in allied studies, including biostratigraphic/paleoenvironmental analyses. In the mid 1990's exploration has begun to pick up once again. More importantly, the development of the new paradigm of Sequence Stratigraphy as a predictive tool for litho- and biofacies has meant a new lease on life for Micropaleontology and biostratigraphy. Sequence Stratigraphy employs the cyclic nature of the stratigraphic record to predict the migration of facies in response to physical and environmental changes. This makes micropaleontological input crucial to producing a realistic chronostratigraphy on which aill sequence models depend. It also allows faster and more unequivocal integration of biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental data in basin analyses and a better understanding of the depositional systems. This application is even more crucial in areas with syndepositional tectonic activity where biostratigraphy becomes a key for correlation and developing regional depositional models. Thus, the renewed interest of the oil industry in the Micropaleontology which should lead to greater enrollments for specialization in the subject at the university level. Environmental gmalysis and reconstructions using microfossils benefited both from the more research-supportive economic climate of the 1970's and early 1980's, as well as improved analytical and statistical techniques. Oxygen and carbon stable isotope analyses of several microfossil groups has provided not only environmental information, but also a new chemical stratigraphy of marine deposits and has been a boom for paleoclimatic studies. More recently researchers have been using both organic and inorganic chemical constituents of microorganisms and their shells to interpret their ecology and to extrapolate this information to comprehend world climates. Culturing techniques have also improved since the early, and often unsuccessful, attempts of the 1950's and 60's ind now provide key information the habitats of living species. Thus, despite a recent interval of relative slowdown in micropaleontological research, paleoenvironmental analysis is alive and well and in a period of exciting growth. The rationale for the republication oi Introduction to Marine Micropaleontology remains the same as that iterated in the preface to the original printing: that there is no comprehensive text on the subject written at the college level. Since the late 1980's, when this volume was allowed to go out of print, several commendable specialized texts have been published, but none of them was able to fill the niche left open by the absence of this text book. They are either too briefer detailed, or their focus is largely on biological or taxonomic aspects of the microplankton groups. Introduction to Marine Micropaleontology remains the only succinct text with a truly utilitarian approach, useful not only for

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PREFACE

an introduction to the subject, but also the application of marine microfossils in paleoceanographic, paleoenvironmental and biostratigraphic analyses. Since the withdrawal of this textbook from book stores, the authors, editors and the publisher have been impressed by the continuing interest of the teachers and practitioners of Micropaleontology in this volume. This, combined with the revival of interest in the subject worldwide led to the decision to reissue the volume in its original, but paperback, form. The ideas expressed in various chapters essentially remain valid today. We have improved the text by updating the Phanerozoic Geologic Time Scale (see page 6 of the introductory chapter) which has been considerably modified since the late 1970s. We hope t h a t the reprinting of this volume in paperback and its wide availability will help further the cause of Marine Micropaleontology which will continue to be an indispensable member of the family of modem subdisciplines of E a r t h Science. March 1997 Bilal U. Haq Oxford, UK Anne Boersma Pomona, NY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This volume represents the joint effort of many scientists who responded to the editors' invitation to contribute introductory-level chapters in their own fields of specialization to a textbook in micropaleontology. Most contributors received help, advice and permission to reproduce published and unpublished illustrative material from their colleagues. Other colleagues critically reviewed original texts of various chapters, thereby considerably improving their quality. We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation and enthusiastic support of all these colleagues in bringing this book to fruition. Acknowledgements for individual chapters are listed below: Foraminifera. W.A Berggren, R. Fleischer, F. McCoy and I. Premoli-Silva for critical reading of the text; J. Aubert, A. Be, W.A. Berggren, R. Fleischer, H. Luterbacher, D. LeRoy, W. Poag, S. Streeter, and R. Todd for illustrative material and/or permission to reproduce the same; T. Saito and d. Breger for scanning electron micrographs of planktonic foraminifera and A. Edwards and J. Weinrib for help with typing the manuscript. Calcareous Nannoplankton. D. Bukry, K Gaarder, K Perch-Nielsen, R. Poore and H. Thierstein for critical reading of the manuscript. For permission to use illustrative material: A. Farinacci, S. Forchheimer, S. Gartner, S. Honjo, H. Manivit, A. Mclntyre and A. Be; H. Okada, P. Roth, K Wilbur and N. Watabe also gave permission to use figures. Ostracodes. H. Oertli for review of the first draft of the manuscript; A. Absolon, D. Andres, R. Benson, H. Blumenstengel, W. van den Bold, K. Debiel, M. Gramm, J. Harding, E. Herrig, N. Homibrook, V. Jaanusson, A. Keij, R. Kesling, L. Komicker, H. Kozur, E. Kristan-ToUmann, K. Krommelbein, H. Malz, A. Martinsson, K McKenzie, H. Oerth, G. Ruggieri, J. Senes, P. Sylvester-Bradley, Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan and Senken-

Bergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, Frankfurt, for illustrative material and/or permission to reproduce the same. Pteropods. G. Tregouboff and M. Rose, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, and the Publisher of Dana Reports for permission to reproduce illustrative material. Radiolaria. W. Riedel for reviewing the first draft of the manuscript; P. Adshead, H. Forman, B. Holdsworth, H. Ling, E . Merinfeld, T. Moore, Jr., E. Pessagno, W. Riedel, and A. Sanfilippo for illustrative material and/or permission to use the same, and P. Bradley and R. White for scanning electron micro-graphs which were made at the research facilities of Cities Service Oil Company. Silicoflagellates and Ebridians. D. Bukry and K. Perch-Nielsen for reviewing the manuscript and A. Loeblich, III, Y. Mandra, H. Okada, K. Perch-Nielsen and W. Womardt for illustrative material and/or permission to reproduce the same. Dinoflagellates, Acritarchs and Tasmanitids. E. Barghoom, F. Cramer, E. Denton, J. Deunff, G. Eaton, A. Eisenack, W. Evitt, H. Gorka, T. Lister, A. Loeblich, Jr., F. Martin, W. Sarjeant, D. Wall, D. Williams, Cambridge University Press, Carnegie Institute, Edizioni Tecnoscienza, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, Micropaleontology, Paleontology and Revista Espanola de Micropaleontologia for illustrative material and/or permission to reproduce the same; J. Charest and M. Trapnell for typing the manuscript and G. Cook for drafting figures. Spores and Pollen. Y. Tsukada and D. Nicols for illustrative materials. Chitinozoa. S. Laufeld and Exxon Production Research Co., Houston, for illustrative material.