Abstract The planktonic foraminifera almost certainly evolved from benthonic ancestors in the early Jurassic. The meroplanktonic genus Conoglobigerina , known from south-central and eastern Europe, appears in the Bajocian and is probably derived from the even more geographically restricted Praegubkinella . This genus was represented by a single taxon in the earliest Toarcian but diversified after the Toarcian anoxic event. At the same level Oberhauserella quadrilobata Fuchs, 1967 became more inflated and there is some evidence to suggest that the ‘anoxic event’ was the environmental perturbation that began the transition to a planktonic mode of life. In the Callovian-Oxfordian interval, the planktonic foraminifera are still restricted to a relatively limited area bounded by the North Atlantic Ocean, NW Europe and Eastern Europe and this remained the case even in the earliest Cretaceous. It was only in the Aptian-Albian that the palaeogeographical distribution changed dramatically, probably as a response to the elevated sea levels caused by the increased rate of ocean crust production which began in the Early Aptian. The principal diversification events in the Jurassic (Toarcian, Bajocian, Callovian-Oxfordian) also appear to be related to sea level highstands.