Taxonomy, Biostratigraphy, and Phylogeny of Oligocene and Early Miocene Paragloborotalia and Parasubbotina

The taxonomy, phylogeny, and biostratigraphy of Oligocene and early Miocene Paragloborotalia and Parasubbotina are reviewed. The two genera are closely related; Paragloborotalia was derived from Parasubbotina in the early Eocene. Parasubbotina was more diverse during the middle Eocene, while Paragloborotalia experienced considerable diversification during the mid-Oligocene and in the latest Oligocene-earliest Miocene. A significant finding has been the synonymization of Globorotalia (Tuborotalia) mendacis Blow, and Turborotalia primitiva Brӧnnimann and Resig with Globorotalia birnageae Blow. The following species from the time interval of interest are regarded as valid: Paragloborotalia acrostoma (Wezel), Paragloborotalia birnageae (Blow), Paragloborotalia continuosa (Blow), Paragloborotalia incognita (Walters) Paragloborotalia kugleri (Bolli), Paragloborotalia mayeri (Cushman and Ellisor), Paragloborotalia nana (Bolli), Paragloborotalia opima (Bolli), Paragloborotalia pseudocontinuosa (Jenkins), Paragloborotalia pseudokugleri (Blow), Paragloborotalia semivera (Hornibrook), Paragloborotalia siakensis (LeRoy), Parasubbotina hagni (Gohrbandt), and Parasubbotina varianta (Subbotina). Paragloborotalia is a long-lived group of planktonic foraminifera that spanned the early Eocene to late Miocene and provided the root stock for the evolution of multiple smooth, nonspinose, and keeled globorotaliid lineages during the Neogene. The early Oligocene forms of Paragloborotalia (nana, opima, siakensis, pseudocontinuosa) have 4 or 5 globular chambers in the final whorl with radial spiral sutures and a broadly rounded periphery. A trend from radial to curved spiral sutures is observed in late Oligocene and earliest Miocene lineages. Most species of Paragloborotalia had wide distributions, but some were more common in tropical to warm subtropical waters (e.g., siakensis, kugleri) and were especially dominant in the equatorial Pacific divergence zone (e.g., nana, opima, and pseudocontinuosa) analogous to modern tropical upwelling Neogloboquadrina. Other species thrived in cool subtropical and temperate waters (e.g., acrostoma, incognita)