On the variability of benthic foraminiferal species of the genus Pleurostomella in the Tethys

Abstract

Twenty small benthic foraminiferal species of the Rotaliid genus Pleurostomella are common in the late Cretaceous and Paleogene from some Tethyan localities: North Atlantic (USA, Mexico, Caribbean), Europe (France, Poland, Italy, Hungaria, Bulgaria, North Sea), North Africa (Tunisia, Egypt), Southwest Asia (Iraq, UAE), Indian Ocean (Pakistan) and Southern Ocean. Seventeen well-known diagnostic species are: Pleurostomella acuta, P. alternans, P. austinana, P. bellardii, P. brevis, P. clavata, P. cubensis, P. eocaena, P. incrassata, P. naranjoensis, P. nitida, P. nuttalli, P. obtusa, P. paleocenica, P. subnodosa, P. velascoensis, P. watersi. Moreover, three other species of Pleurostomella are believed here to be new: (1) the Maastrichtian P. osmani n. sp. is recorded from Abu Zenima section, east Gulf of Suez, west central Sinai, northern Egypt, (2) the Paleocene P. plummerae n. sp. was recorded from the Midway Formation in Texas (USA), and (3) the Eocene P. haquei n. sp. was recorded from Quetta District, West Pakistan.