The evolution of Gulf Coast micropalaeontology: from biostratigraphy to chronostratigraphy
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Published:January 01, 2013
Abstract
The utility of micropalaeontology and biostratigraphy has perhaps been nowhere better demonstrated than in the Gulf Coast of the United States. Gulf Coast micropalaeontology and biostratigraphy evolved through several phases in response to the shift in exploration from onshore to the deep Gulf of Mexico. During this time, micropalaeontology and biostratigraphy morphed into the discipline of chronostratigraphy while playing critical roles in exploration due to the complex geometries produced by the interplay of sea-level change, shifting loci of sedimentation and diapirism. Micropalaeontology, biostratigraphy and their latest incarnation of chronostratigraphy have contributed to the discovery, exploration and development of new fields and trends while saving countless hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in exploration and development costs, as well as significantly adding to reserves by discovering new reservoirs that would otherwise be missed by the drill. Chronostratigraphy will continue to play a critical role in the exploration and development of the latest Gulf of Mexico frontier play: the Lower Tertiary Deepwater Wilcox Trend.
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Contents
Landmarks in Foraminiferal Micropalaeontology: History and Development

This TMS Special Publication comprises a collection of 23 papers with an international authorship reflecting on landmarks in the history and development of Foraminiferal micropalaeontology. The volume is prefaced by an introductory overview that provides a brief and selected historical setting, as well as the intended aims of the book. Selected developments in Foraminiferal studies from a global perspective are presented from the time of Alcide d’Orbignyand the founding of the Paris MNHN collections in the mid-nineteenth century to the use of foraminifera in industry, other museum collections, palaeoceanography and environmental studies, regional studies from the Southern Hemisphere and the riseand fall of significant research schools. The book concludes with a chapter on the modelling of foraminifera. Landmarks in Foraminiferal Micropalaeontology: History and Development will be of particular interest to micropalaeontologists, other Earth scientists, historians of science, museum curators and the general reader with an interest in science.