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The Eocene sedimentary units in the Kocaeli and Armutlu peninsulas and İznik-Geyve region (northwest Turkey) consist of marine siliciclastic and carbonate deposits, locally intercalated with volcaniclastic rocks and tuffs (Middle Eocene Magmatic Rocks-MEMR). The record of larger benthic fauna (LBF) and pelagic microfossils, such as planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannoplankton, combined with lithological description, indicate a wide spectrum of depositional environments ranging from shallowto deep-marine. These deposits contain in situ and/or allochthonous assemblages of orthophragminids, nummulitids, subordinate rotaliids, and sparse alveolinids. The in situ assemblages (mainly orthophragminids) point to several episodes of shallow marine depositional conditions during a) early Ypresian (SBZ 5-7 and 7-9), b) late Ypresian (SBZ 10-11), c) early Lutetian (SBZ 13), and d) middle Lutetian (SBZ 14-15). Upper Ypresian (Cuisian) deposits with rich LBF accumulations are the most ubiquitous, recognized across a wide region from the Thrace Basin to Central Anatolia. Lower Lutetian deposits, on the other hand, occur in a limited area only near the town of Şile, on the coast of the Black Sea. Orthophragminids immediately below the first volcaniclastic beds of the MEMR constrain the initiation of the volcanism to the latest Ypresian or around the Ypresian/Lutetian boundary. The LBF assemblages from the clastic intercalations of the MEMR are referred to SBZ 14-15 and indicate that the marine realm in the Armutlu and Kocaeli peninsulas persisted until middle Lutetian. Since then, continental conditions have prevailed in the region, while a marine realm has developed in the Thrace Basin during the late Middle to Late Eocene and Oligocene. The deep-marine Eocene deposits with pelagic microfossils and allochthonous LBF are mostly confined to the Ypresian. The allochthonous orthophragminids in these deep-marine deposits are also presented here to give a broader picture of their occurrence in NW Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Machari Formation ranges from the 'upper Series 3' (Middle Cambrian) to Furongian (Upper Cambrian) in the Yeongwol area, Korea. It has been known to yield relatively diverse invertebrate fossils. Particularly, the trilobite biozones of the formation have been well defined. On the other hand, little has hitherto been studied on conodont microfossils for the formation. This paper reports a diverse and well-preserved protoconodonts and paraconodonts of Series 3 from the formation in the Eodungol Section, exposed along a southern mountain trail of Mt. Sambangsan, Yeongwol, Korea. Five of the 13 samples collected for conodont contain a rich protoconodont and paraconodont assemblage and numerous shelly fossils including trilobites, brachiopods, sponge spicules, hyolithids, and incertae sedis. Sample Eo 5 is extremely fossiliferous (465 elements, 96.5% of total collection), and the most abundant species was Phakelodus elongatus (236 elements, 62% of the Eo 5 collection). The preservation is relatively good, but some specimens are corroded and fragmentary. Some of the protoconodonts are exfoliated. Relatively larger ones were commonly preserved as phosphatized internal molds, particularly in specimens of Furnishina bigeminata, Furnishina leei n. sp., Muellerodus pomeranensis, Nogamiconus sinensis, and westergaardodids. Phakelodids were commonly preserved as clusters. Among 20 species referable to nine genera, Furnishina bigeminata, Furnishina leei n. sp., Nogamiconus sinensis, Huayuanodontus tricornis, Proscandodus obliquus, and Westergaardodina grandidens were previously undescribed species in Korea. This assemblage is named herein as the Westergaardodina matsushitai Zone, which is a new biozonal name replacing the old one, i.e., Gapparodus bisulcatus-Westergaardodina matsushitai-Westergaardodina moessebergensis Assemblage. The W. matsushitai Zone corresponds to the Lejopyge armata trilobite Zone and is well correlated with the upper Series 3 conodont biozones of the Westergaardodina matsushitai-Westergaardodina grandidens Zone of South China and the Westergaardodina matsushitai Zone of North China, respectively. The present data allow a useful correlation to China and Baltica in relation to new subdivision of the Cambrian. Furnishina leei n. sp. is newly described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Macrostratigraphy uses packages of continuous sedimentation that are bound by hiatuses of non-deposition, erosion, or alternations between environments/lithologies to characterize spatiotemporal patterns of sedimentation. Previous work has linked the macrostratigraphy of marine shelf environments to many different macroevolutionary patterns in the marine animal fossil record. Here we use an improved macrostratigraphic database for North America, combined with fossil occurrence data in the Paleobiology Database, to show that macroevolutionary and macrostratigraphic patterns are correlated more strongly in marine environments than in non-marine environments. We also test the hypothesis that the temporal distribution of lithological diversity (measured as evenness, similar to ecological evenness based on the number of lithostratigraphic units with a given lithologic type within each time interval) has a relationship to genus-level taxonomic diversity in both the marine and non-marine realms. Uneven sampling of lithologies and their corresponding depositional environments can bias our perception of taxonomic diversity by causing taxa from poorly sampled environments to be underrepresented in the fossil record. Our results show a negative correlation between lithologic evenness and marine vertebrate generic richness — less even sampling of lithologies corresponds to a higher observed taxonomic richness, and no correlation with lithologic evenness and non-marine diversity measures. This suggests a difference in the relationship between biologic and sedimentary processes at work in the marine and non-marine realms, and possibly differences in the magnitude of the bias imposed by the rock record on the underlying biologic patterns. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article offers information on utilizing the marine microfossils obtained from ocean drilling for the purpose of biostratigraphy and biochronologic resolution for progression to the Cenozoic era.