ATLAS OF OLIGOCENE PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERA: A PREVIEW (Invited Presentation)

The Atlas of Oligocene Planktonic Foraminifera will be the third special publication by the members of the Paleogene Planktonic Foraminifera Working Group of the International Subcommission on Paleogene Stratigraphy, International Union of Geological Sciences. It follows atlases on the Paleocene (Olsson and others,1999) and the Eocene (Pearson and others, 2006). This Cushman Foundation Special Publication updates the taxonomy, paleoecology, phylogeny, and biostratigraphy of the diverse groups of Oligocene planktonic foraminifera. The atlas is organized in 15 taxonomic chapters on genera and 7 chapters on zonation, range charts, paleobiology, Russian taxa, and wall textures. Various members of the working group are lead authors on the chapters. The taxonomic chapters synthesize a highly dispersed body of literature and develop new taxonomic concepts, based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Most plates of species include new SEM images of holotypes. Publication is anticipated in 2013.