Eocene Deep-Water Agglutinated Foraminifera from the Eastern Carpathians (Romania): Paleoenvironments and Biostratigraphical Remarks

Abstract

Eocene foraminiferal assemblages from the Moldova Valley area in the Eastern Carpathians have been investigated with a focus on biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental changes under the influence of Eocene tectonics. Paleoenvironmental investigations have been carried on two sections using foraminiferal morphogroups, clusters, and diversity analyses. The Eocene assemblages are highly diversified and dominated by deep-water agglutinated foraminifera; rare calcareous benthic and planktonic foraminifera were indentified only in one section. Agglutinated foraminiferal morphogroups are differently represented in the studied sections:while in the first section (GHP)M2c (elongate keeled) and M3b (flattened irregular)morphotypes are lacking, the second section (GHE) includes all the agglutinated foraminifera morphogroups. Bathyal paleoenvironments are indicated by typical deep-water agglutinated foraminifera together with Ammolagena clavata (Jones and Parker). Based on the presence of the agglutinated species Bulbobaculites gorlicensis Waskowska, Reticulophragmium amplectens (Grzybowski), Spiroplectammina spectabilis (Grzybowski) emend Kaminski, and calcareous nannofossils, the age of the deposits has been assigned to the Bartonian (the GHP section) and the Priabonian (the GHE section).