27. CRETACEOUS PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERS, EASTERN EQUATORIAL ATLANTIC1

Jean-Pierre Bellier2

ABSTRACT

During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 159, several Cretaceous sections were drilled at Sites 959, 960, and 962 in the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Margin. The lowermost sediments of Site 962, which contain planktonic foraminifers, are given an upper Albian age. The fauna is rich and mainly consists of unkeeled forms, a possible indication that a cool environment was predominant during this period. The assemblages show some similarities with those previously described from the Angola Basin and the Walvis Ridge. At the other sites, Cretaceous planktonic foraminifers are rare and poorly preserved. They are of Turonian and Coniacian–Santonian age at Site 960, and of Coniacian–Santonian age at Site 959. The Upper Cretaceous assemblages comprise Tethyan elements, an evidence of warmer waters and also of the opening of the Atlantic to the North.

1Mascle, J., Lohmann, G.P., and Moullade, M. (Eds.), 1998. Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, 159: College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program).
2Laboratoire de Micropaléontologie, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS URA 1761, T15-4E, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. bellier@ccr.jussieu.fr