Cretaceous Calcareous Nannofossils from Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 77, Southeast Gulf of Mexico

Authors

David K. Watkins, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Jay L. Bowdler, Union Oil Company of California

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1984

Comments

Published in Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (1984) 77: 649-674. Paper number 27. Copyright 1984, Deep Sea Drilling Project. Used by permission.

Abstract

Five of the six sites drilled during Leg 77 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project yielded Cretaceous sediments. Two of these sites, 535 and 540, form a composite section that spans the upper Berriasian through most of the Cenomanian. Olive black marly limestones in this interval yield relatively rich, well-preserved nannofossil assemblages that allow biostratigraphic subdivision of the sequence. This composite section provides important information on the Early Cretaceous history of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as additional information on tropical Lower Cretaceous nannofossil assemblages. The post-Cenomanian nannofossil (and sedimentary) record is limited to a thin, condensed section of Santonian through lower Maestrichtian pelagic sediments at one site (538) and is absent or represented by redeposited material at the other sites. Two new genera, Perchnielsenella and Darwinilithus, are described. Two new taxa, Darwinilithus pentarhethum and Lithraphidites acutum ssp. eccentricum, are described; and two new combinations, Rhagodiscus reightonensis and Perchnielsenella stradneri, are proposed.