Though the earliest reports of rich and abundant occurrences of planktonic
foraminifera in the Parh Limestone date back to mid-twentieth century (Williams, 1959; Gigon, 1962), but later only few studies of biostratigraphic significance have been conducted (Jones, 1961; Smewing et al., 2002; Kazmi, 1988).
Through these analyzes will allow recognizing the sectors where there is the highest preservation of
foraminifera tests, thus delimiting priority areas for the paleoenvironmental studies.
The
foraminifera and palynomorphs recovered from the Djega outcrop represent three categories: (i) restricted Late Cretaceous forms known not to have ranged any younger than the Maastrichtian, (ii) long ranging forms, commonly the palynomorphs that crossed the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, and (iii) those forms that have been recorded to have appeared for the first time only during the Paleocene and in younger strata.
Unlike the groundmass, calcite strongly dominates in the grains > 5 [micro]m--skeletal debris, and
foraminifera shells sometimes reach the size of 1-2 mm.
The marly deposits of the Ezkaba Formation are rich in fossils of planktic
foraminifera. Among them Orbulinoides beckmanni, the index species that defines the biozone E12, was identified for the first time in the Pyrenean Domain (Payros et al., 1997).
Key words: Early Eocene, Sakesar Limestone, larger benthic
foraminifera, Shallow water, Salt Range.
Previous studies show that the formation is rich in benthic
foraminifera [3].
There are 6705 morphospecies of extant
foraminifera, according to the latest edition of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS Editorial Board, 2014).
This microfacies is highly diverse in larger benthic
foraminifera with perforate wall such as Neorotalia viennotti, Ammonia beccari, A.