Uppermost Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous deep-water benthic foraminiferal assemblages from Site 765 on the Argo Abyssal Plain

Benthic foraminifers were studied in 99 samples collected from the lower 200 m of Hole 765C. The studied section ranges from the Tithonian to Aptian, and foraminifers can be subdivided into five assemblages on the basis of faunal diversity and stratigraphic ranges of distinctive species. Assemblages display a high diversity of agglutinated forms, which comprise the autochthonous assemblages. Assemblages at the base of Hole 765C are wholly composed of agglutinated forms, reflecting deposition beneath the carbonate compensation depth (CCD). Most calcareous benthic species are found in turbidite layers. The Praedorothia praehauteriviana Assemblage from Hole 765C is the temporal equivalent of similar assemblages from DSDP Holes in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Stratigraphic ranges of cosmopolitan agglutinated species at Site 765 generally overlap with their reported ranges in the Atlantic and in the bathyal flysch sequences of the Carpathians; however, several species from Hole 765C have not been previously reported from Uppermost Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous abyssal sediments. -from Authors