Abstract
Microfossils answer the most fundamental question in geology: “What is the age of the rock?” The distribution of microfossils in time and space provides the answer, and it is the subject matter of biostratigraphy. The relative values of different kinds of fossils vary with the geological age and depositional environment of the geological section. In subsurface stratigraphy, microfossils are most valued in biozonation in the limited size of the borehole samples. One of the reasons why micropaleontology has reached its present level of specialization is because of the ability of microfossils to provide finer time slices of the stratigraphic column. It is a highly specialized field, demanding a sound understanding of the taxonomy of the concerned microfossil. The nature and complexities of the biostratigraphic data are discussed and illustrated with diagrams, and types of biozone are explained. The microfossil-based biostratigraphic zonations, including the “standard planktic foraminiferal zones” and “shallow benthic zones”, are introduced. Quantitative biostratigraphy and the graphic correlation method are briefly explained.
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Further Reading
Gradstein FM, Ogg JG, Schmitz MD, Ogg GM (2012) The geologic time scale 2012, (2 vols.). Elsevier, Amsterdam
Koutsoukos EAM (ed) (2005) Applied stratigraphy. Springer, The Netherlands
McGowran B (2005) Biostratigraphy – microfossils and geological time. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
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Saraswati, P.K., Srinivasan, M.S. (2016). Biostratigraphy. In: Micropaleontology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14574-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14574-7_10
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