The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 341 retrieved deep-sea sediment (e.g., U1417) for determining the linkage between climate and tectonism change in the Neogene at several sites. It is crucial to constrain the age of the collected sediments. In this context we define the biostratigraphy of radiolarians, which are a good proxy for constraining the age of deep-sea sediments. We defined the upper 200 m of the core sediments collected at Site U1417 as covering the past 1.7 Mky.

This paper describes four new Cenozoic, deep-water benthic foraminifera from the reference collections at the Natural History Museum in London. The focus is on selected calcareous taxa that are of stratigraphical and/or palaeoecological significance for academic and industrial-related activities.

This paper describes a new genus of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts to accommodate the transfer of a problematic species.

The conodont Neogondolella regalis is an unusual species for its genus. This paper reconstructs the complete feeding apparatus of this organism based on specimens collected from British Columbia, Canada. This new reconstruction of the complete apparatus demonstrates that this species is different from others belonging to the genus Neogondolella and suggests that a new genus should be created. This has implications for dating and correlating rocks from the Pacific Cordillera (Canada).

Five new species of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts are described from the Upper Cretaceous strata of the British Geological Survey (BGS) Banterwick Barn and Trunch boreholes (onshore UK).

This study constitutes an attempt to analyze the variations in foraminiferal assemblages using the morphogroup approach in the Late Devonian. Our results show that both methods of estimating morphotype percentages, the traditional counting and the cumulated area methods, provide similar results, are highly correlated with each other, and provide similar relationships with paleoenvironmental proxies.

We describe an unusual millimetre-long tube that was discovered in sediment from the deep sea floor. The tube was made by a single-celled organism by cementing together sedimentary grains from its environment. The specimen is unusual because it implies that the organism used a very high degree of discrimination in selecting its grains, as they are all of one type and most are oriented the same way. It raises intriguing questions of how the organism accomplished this activity.

In order to use ocean sediments as a recorder of past oceanographic changes, a critical first step is to stratigraphically date the sediments. The absence of microfossils with known stratigraphic ranges has always hindered dating of Southern Ocean sediments. Here we tie dinocyst ranges to the international timescale in a well-dated sediment core from offshore Antarctica. With this, we can now use dinocysts as a biostratigraphic tool in otherwise stratigraphically poorly dated sediments.

Microscopic-sized fossils adapted to a particular chemosynthetic environment (such as cold methane seep) are poorly known. Here we report a new ostracod (small crustacean with high fossilization potential) species probably endemic to a cold methane seep environment. This new discovery is important because there is a wealth of microscopic-sized fossils in geological records and this species can be used as an indicator fossil for past cold methane seep environment.

We report the occurrence of a foraminiferal assemblage dominated by Ammobaculoides in the lowermost member of the Middle Jurassic Dhruma Formation exposed west of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The new species Ammobaculoides dhrumaensis n.sp. is described from the D1 unit (the Balum Member) of the Dhruma Formation, which has been assigned an early Bajocian age based on ammonites. Our new finding constitutes the oldest reported worldwide occurrence of the agglutinated foraminiferal genus Ammobaculoides.

With the help of remnants of small crustaceans that fossilize easily and live only in different types of freshwater, we could verify the fact that the Holocene was wetter than today; this also influenced the human population at that time. Due to the higher moisture, farming and husbandry was probably possible. We could also clarify some of the changes in time in these very fertile areas. This is also a help for the archaeologists who have recently carried out many excavations in the same area.

Cylindroporella sugdeni Elliott, 1957, a fossil green calcareous alga originally found in lower Cretaceous strata of Oman, is revised. The species is transferred from the genus Cylindroporella Johnson, 1954, the thallus of which bears both fertile and sterile laterals, to the genus Holosporella Pia, 1930, the thallus of which bears only fertile laterals.

Splitting samples into smaller subsamples is often necessary in micropalaeontological studies. Indeed, the general high abundance of microfossils – which makes them excellent tools to reconstruct past environments – also results in very time-consuming faunal analyses. Here we present an improved and cost-effective wet splitter for micropalaeontological samples aimed to reduce picking time, while keeping information loss to a minimum.

Two new ostracod crustaceans are described from fossil shells found in muddy sediments deposited in deep water during Lower Cretaceous. These mud sediments are known as the Valhall and Åsgard formations and are found in the northern and central North Sea and Atlantic margin off Norway. The new species are named Pontocyprella valhalla and Bairdia asgarda after the formation names. The microfossil research was conducted to bring to light new finds of an otherwise overlooked group of fossils.

The challenge between benthic foraminifera and ostracoda is open: which is the most reliable microfossil group for precise palaeoenvironmental reconstructions? Results from a lagoonal succession of the Romagna coast (Italy) reveal that the winner is ostracoda, due to their higher abundance, higher differentiation, and precise relationships between species and ecological parameters. Nevertheless, palaeoenvironmental stress and additional details are provided by benthic foraminifera.

This paper documents a regional warming event in the Albian of the Anglo-Paris Basin and its palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic implications. This multi-proxy study utilizes three independent datasets to confirm the warming event that lasted ~ 500 kyr around the middle–upper Albian boundary. The research involved a field study of the Gault Clay (UK) with an in-depth analysis of nannofossils, bulk sediment carbon and oxygen isotopes, and an investigation of ammonites from the formation.

Most standard microfossil cleaning methods are time-consuming and involve hazardous and costly chemicals (acids and toxic substances), which may dissolve either the calcareous or siliceous components. The method presented in this study uses a low-cost domestic pipe cleaner, which is quick and easy to handle and dispose of. Both the calcareous and siliceous components are retained in remarkable condition. Thus, it is a highly recommended, cost-efficient, and environmentally friendly method.

Forty-eight ostracod species belonging to 28 genera from the Late Devonian of Guangxi in South China are described and figured. The ostracod assemblages can be attributed to the Late Devonian rhenana–linguiformis conodont zones. The ecological assemblages of ostracods from the Yangdi and Nandong sections are indicative of the carbonate platform to basin environment.

Skeletal morphology is the traditional way to classify living and fossil silicoflagellates (siliceous phytoplankton); however, recent studies have demonstrated that measurements of skeletal parts can also provide important information about evolution and skeletal development. In the present study, a 2-D morphometric programme was modified in order to study the taxonomic confusion within a fossil species complex of the genus Corbisema. The results show that two species can be clearly separated.

Approximately 50 million years ago, global CO₂ levels were abnormally high and the arctic climate was comparable to today’s southern USA. Our research analysed the geological and ecological conditions of this warm Arctic with a focus on one micro-organism that survived by being attached to fine grains of sand in a storm-prone Arctic Ocean. It emerged after CO₂-caused mass extinction and colonized the Arctic when CO₂ levels averaged 500 ppm. Today's CO₂ levels are moving toward that level.

The hothouse climate of the early Paleogene and the associated violent carbon cycle perturbations are of particular interest to understanding current and future global climate change. Using dinoflagellate cysts and stable carbon isotope analyses, we identify several significant events, e.g., the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum in sedimentary deposits from the Otway Basin, SE Australia. We anticipate that this study will facilitate detailed climate reconstructions west of the Tasmanian Gateway.

Wangshangkia, a new genus of Ostracoda, is described from the Late Devonian in Dushan of Guizhou, South China. This genus belongs to the family Bairdiocyprididae Shaver, 1961 and includes two new species, i.e. Wangshangkia dushaniensis and W. bailouiensis. The new genus is characterized by a wide ventral carina with radial striae. It is reported from the Famennian of South China and disappeared just below the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary. Wangshangkia is essentially a benthic crawler.

Shallow-water carbonate deposits rich in larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) are well-known from the Eocene of the Americas. However, there have been few recent LBF studies in this region. Here we present the LBF ranges from two previously unpublished sections from the Ocala limestone, Florida. The study indicates that the lower member of the Ocala limestone may be Bartonian rather than Priabonian in age, with implications for regional biostratigraphy.

We carried out a morphometric study of late Paleocene orthophragminids from the Mawmluh Quarry section in the Shillong Plateau, India. We recorded the occurrence of two species of Orbitoclypeus, whereas the other typical Tethyan genera Discocyclina is absent. We also identified the associated benthic foraminifera and algae. Shallow benthic zones (SBZ) 3 and 4 have been recognized in the section. The timing of transition from shallow marine to continental deposition is commented on.

Benthic foraminifera from the Bottsand coastal lagoon, western Baltic Sea, have been monitored annually since 2003 and accompanied by hydrographic measurements since 2012. Elphidium incertum, a stenohaline species of the Baltic deep water fauna, colonised the lagoon in 2016, most likely during a period of salinities > 19 units and average temperatures of 18 °C in early autumn. The high salinities probably triggered their germination from a propagule bank in the lagoonal bottom sediment.

This paper describes five new Mesozoic deep-water benthic foraminifera from the former British Petroleum microfossil reference collections at the Natural History Museum, London.