Benthic foraminiferal abundances at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary of ODP Hole 117-1049C at Blake Nose, Northwest Atlantic (Appendix A)

Sediments recovered at lower bathyal ODP Site 1049 on Blake Nose (Northwestern Atlantic) offer an opportunity to study environmental changes at the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/P) boundary relatively close to the Chicxulub impact structure on the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. In Hole 1049C, the boundary is located at the base of a 9-cm-thick layer with abundant spherules, considered to be impact ejecta. Uppermost Maastrichtian oozes below, and lowermost Danian pelagic oozes above the spherulebed contain well-preserved bathyal benthic foraminifera. The spherule-bed itself, in contrast, contains a mixture of shallow (neritic) and deeper (bathyal) species, and specimens vary strongly in preservation. This assemblage was probably formed by reworking and down-slope transport triggered by the K/P impact. Across the spherule-bed (i.e., the K/P boundary) only ~7% of benthic foraminiferal species became extinct, similar to the low extinction rates of benthic foraminifera worldwide. Quantitative analysis of benthic foraminiferal assemblages and morphogroups in the >63-µm size fraction indicates a relatively eutrophic, stable environment during the latest Maastrichtian, interrupted by a sudden decrease in the food supply to the benthos at the K/P boundary and a decrease in diversity of the faunas, followed by a stepped recovery during the earliest Danian. The recovery was probably linked to the gradual recovery of surface-dwelling primary producers.

Early Paleocene and Late Cretaceous magnetostratigraphic assignments for Maud Rise sediments (Table 1)

A paleomagnetic investigation of the Late Cretaceous sediments of the Maud Rise, Antarctica, recovered in Holes 689B and 690C provides a fairly complete magnetostratigraphic record ranging from Chron C33N through Chron C29R. The Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary is shown to occur in Chron C29R at Site 690.

Late Cretaceous and Cainozoic bathyal Ostracoda of DSDP Site 62-463 in the Central Pacific (Fig. 3)

Cainozoic deep-sea ostracod assemblages from the summits of Mid-Pacific guyots point to high levels of endemism possibly as a result of their bathymetric separation from the surrounding sea floor. However, the interpretation of these fossil assemblages is hampered by the paucity of comparative material from surrounding non-guyot sites. Fifteen ostracod assemblages from DSDP Site 463 (Late Cretaceous-Pleistocene) were studied to compare with those from nearby guyots. Three distinct faunal assemblages are recognised at Site 463: Assemblage A (Maastrichtian-Eocene), Assemblage B (Oligocene-Upper Miocene) and Assemblage C (Upper Miocene-Pleistocene) although the palaeoenvironmental significance of these units is unclear. Sixty-two ostracod species are identified, the thirteen most abundant are discussed in the taxonomic section, five of which are described as new. Between 30 and 100% of the species encountered in each sample are considered as endemic to Site 463, while some of the remaining species were previously thought to be endemic to individual guyots. Similarly high levels of endemism on nearby guyots probably reflect an incomplete knowledge of deep-sea ostracod faunas rather than the establishment of geographically or bathymetrically restricted populations. The presence of globally pandemic and geographically widespread taxa on sites such as the Mid-Pacific Mountains, surrounded by abyssal depths which lie below the CCD, indicates that some faunal exchange or migration of ostracods does take place. This must be achieved within the intermediate waters and probably occurs passively.