Early Paleogene environmental turnover in the southern Tethys as recorded by foraminiferal and organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts assemblages

Abstract

Within this research, I investigated the environmental change of the marine ecosystem on the continental margin of the Southern Tethys during the early Paleogene. In particular, my project portrayed how the marine ecosystem reacted to the Paleocene Eocene thermal maximum (~55 Ma) and explored a possible hyperthermal event during the middle Paleocene, across the Danian-Selandian transition (61-59 Ma). Several localities located along paleobathymetric transects (from middle neritic to upper bathyal) in Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia have been investigated. Considering that a multi-proxy approach is preferable for a most reliable reconstruction, I evaluated different microbiotic groups from the surface water (organic dinocysts and planktic foraminifera) and from the sea floor (benthic foraminifera); in addition to geochemical proxies (oxygen and carbon stable isotopes and carbonate content). Considering multi-proxy observations, climatic and environmental changes across these intervals of biotic turnover are investigated, unravelling possible similarities between these two events.