The global extent of Paleocene to Eocene deep-water agglutinated foraminiferal acmes

Deep-water agglutinated foraminifera are investigated from Paleocene to Eocene sediments recovered from IODP Hole U1511B in the northeastern Tasman Sea. The assemblage consists entirely of “cosmopolitan” species originally described from the Carpathians, Caucasus, Trinidad, the western Tethys, and other DSDP/ODP sites, implying that there is little or no endemism among deep-water benthic faunas in the semi-isolated Tasman Sea. The Paleocene–Eocene interval in Hole U1511B is characterized by successive acmes of Rzehakina, Spiroplectammina, Reticulophragmium, Trochammina, ammodiscids, and Karrerulina, and therefore bears striking similarity to previously studied sections in the western Tethys and Boreal North Atlantic. The occurrence of approximately coeval acmes at mid latitudes in both hemispheres suggests that the agglutinated foraminifera responded in a similar manner to ecological perturbations that were of a global extent.