A note on the biostratigraphy of Paleocene-Eocene larger foraminifera fromwestern Cuba

Larger foraminifera were collected from various Paleocene and Eocene locali ties in western Cuba. Included was a measured section atom Francisco de Pau la in Ciudad de la Habana Province in the Apolo and Capdevila Formations. T his section spans the Paleocene/Eocene boundary and has been the focus of i ntensive biostratigraphic work. In this study, the stratigraphic occurrence s of the larger foraminifera were correlated to biozonations based on plank tonic foraminifera, calcareous nannofossils, radiolaria, and smaller benthi c foraminifera already identified at San Francisco de Paula. Most of the ab ove localities consist of synorogenic sedimentary rocks and the larger fora minifera collected from these sites have in fact been transported to deep w ater. In order to obtain some in situ larger foraminfera, additional upper Paleocene and lower Eocene samples were obtained from 10 wells in episutura l basins from throughout Cuba. In all, eleven species of larger foraminifera were identified from the uppe r Paleocene and lower Eocene of Cuba. These are: Ranikothalia catenula (Cus hman and Jarvis) (=Operculina catenula 1932), Discocyclina barkeri Vaughan and Cole, Discocyclina anconensis Barker, Discocyclina weaveri Vaughan, Eoc onuloides lopeztrigoi (Palmer) (=Amphistegina lopeztrigoi 1934), Eoconuloid es wellsi Cole and Bermudez, Eofabiania cushmani (Vaughan) (=Discocyclina c ushmani 1929), Athecocyclina stephensoni (Vaughan) (=Discocyclina stephenso ni 1929), Pseudophargmina cedarkeysensis, Cole, Hexagonocyclina cristensis (Vaughan) (=Orbitoclypeus? cristensis 1924), and Cushmania americana (Cushm an) (=Conulites americana 1919). The larger foraminifera from Paleocene age samples contain an assemblage recognized throughout the Caribbean and Gulf Coastal Plain as the Ranikothalia catenula fauna. Eocene samples contain a n assemblage of larger foraminifera refered to here as the Eoconuloides wel lsi fauna. Based on data collected at the San Francisco de Paula section, t he change from the Ranikothalia catenula fauna to the Eoconuloides wellsi f auna appears to post-date the benthic faunal turnover associated with the b athyal realm.