Middle Oxfordian benthic foraminifera from the shelf to the basin in southeastern France. Distribution and environmental control

The aim of this work is to characterize the associations of benthic foramin ifera from the shelf to the basin in southeastern France during Middle Oxfo rdian time. Seven well correlated sections allow the comparison of samples from different but perfectly isochronous environments. A detailed inventory of 94 taxa is given for the Transversarium zone and 4 associations are pro posed to characterize respectively the basin, the slope, the outer shelf an d the inner shelf. Agglutinated foraminifera, spirillinids and lenticulinid s are the main components of the benthic microfauna. The calculation of the ir percentage allows to estimate the relative bathymetry. According to rece nt works on foraminifer ecology, the main controlling factors seem to be fo od supply and competition, The peculiar microfauna from Beauvoisin is expla ined by a localized chemosynthetic primary production. This is consistent w ith the previous hypothesis concerning the origin of the pseudobioherms whi ch characterize this locality.