Distribution of Cretaceous and early Danian planktonic foraminifera in ODP Hole 119-738C (Table 1)

Although some Cretaceous planktonic foraminifers consistently occur with early Danian marker species in initially high abundance above the boundary clay, they are not considered as survival species, but are considered as reworked because of their co-occurrence with Campanian and Maestrichtian species whose extinctions took place well before the end of the Maestrichtian.The recovered Maestrichtian planktonic foraminifers are identical to Austral Realm assemblages found in the southern South Atlantic region.

All five species previously recognized as being endemic to this realm were recovered from Hole 738C. Lower Danian assemblages strongly resemble coeval low-latitude foraminifer faunas, whereas upper Danian assemblages differ only in the absence of indicator species, particularly the morozovellids. The stratigraphy of this sequence is correlated using existing zonal schemes for the southern high-latitudes, with modification of one Antarctic Paleogene zone and subzone.

Only broad subdivisions of tropical zonal schemes were recognized, as most of the nominate taxa are absent from the southern high-latitudes.