Latas, Marcin; (2025) Plio-Pleistocene planktonic foraminifera biostratigraphy and biochronology. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text Marcin_Latas_Marcin Latas PhD Thesis.pdf - Accepted Version Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 April 2026. Download (24MB)

Abstract

Planktonic foraminifera have one of the most complete fossil records, and thanks to their overwhelming abundance in the oceans, they provide great means for dating and correlation of marine sediments. Effective use of planktonic foraminifera requires a good knowledge of species biostratigraphic ranges with reliable age calibrations for their evolution and extinction. The currently used zonation and global biochronology of planktonic foraminifera relies heavily on data from a single site in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean and there is a critical need to check their reliability in localities from various regions to replace them with new regional ages where it is necessary. The overarching aim of this study was to test these calibrations on planktonic foraminifera assemblages from the new deep-sea drill cores recently recovered by the International Ocean Discovery Program expeditions to the Indo-Pacific (Exp. 363) and South Atlantic Ocean (Exp. 390/393). This thesis discusses findings of the biostratigraphic analyses of the Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary sequences at four sites (U1483, U1486, U1560 and U1583). Presented results show that the timing of some of calibrated here bioevents differ substantially from their published ages. Whilst some of these differences can be potentially explained by taxonomic issues (e.g. top of Neogloboquadrina acostaensis and bases of Sphaeroidinella dehiscens s.l. and Globorotalia crassaformis s.l.) other seems to represent genuine evolutionary signal (e.g. tops of Globigerinoidesella fistulosa; Globorotalia psudomiocenica and Sphaeroidinellopsis kochi). This thesis also presents the results of comprehensive morphometric analyses and taxonomic studies that led to the description of Globigerinoides rublobatus, a new species of fossil planktonic foraminifera. This taxon was found to occur in two colour variants, represented by a pigmented (pink) and a non-pigmented (white) forms. It is important find as this is so far only the third instance of fossil planktonic foraminifera known to exhibit pink pigmentation in part of its population.

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