Abstract
This is the first major survey of the Cretaceous foraminifera of the Queen Charlotte Islands (QCI), British Columbia, Canada. Fifty-seven species of benthic and planktic foraminifera are identified in 267 samples collected from mudstones of the Albian-Cenomanian (Cretaceous) Haida and Bearskin Bay formations of the Queen Charlotte Group on Moresby and Graham islands within the QCI, British Columbia, Canada. Most of the fauna characterizes shallow-shelf environments, but outer-shelf assemblages of Cenomanian age occur at one station on northwest Graham Island where the lower part of the section appears to have been deposited during an early transgressive phase corresponding to the Greenhorn marine cycle of the North American Western Interior.
Nearly 60% of the identified foraminiferal species have affinities with Albian-Cenomanian foraminifera from Alaska. This correlation indicates that the northward drift of Wrangellia terrane, which includes the QCI, had entered the boreal realm much earlier than previously suggested by some research results.