Distribution of Upper Cretaceous deep water agglutinated foraminifera in sediments of the North Atlantic and its marginal seas (Tab. 1)

Deep water limestone assemblages (,,Scaglia,,-type)5. Abyssal mixed calcareous-agglutinated assemblages6. Abyssal purely agglutinated assemblagesLatitudinal differences in faunal composition are observed, the most important of which is the lack or extreme paucity of calcareous forms in high latitude assemblages.

East-to-west differences appear to be of comparatively minor importance. Most DWAF species occur in all studied regions and are thus considered as cosmopolitan. Biostratigraphic turnovers in the taxonomic content of assemblages are observed in the lowermost Turonian, mid-Campanian and in the upper Maastrichtian to lowermost Paleocene.

These datum levels correspond to inter-regional and time-constant paleooceanographic events, which probably also affected the deep-water benthic biota. This allows us to use deep-water agglutinated foraminifers for biostratigraphy in the North Atlantic sequences deposited below CCD and to geographically extend the currently used zonal schemes which have been established in the Carpathian and Alpine areas.