ABSTRACT: Gulf Coastal Plain Market Fossils in the Revised Miliolidae

ANDERSEN, HAROLD V.

The foraminiferal family, Miliolidae, no longer includes the genera with a porcelaneous wall as seen in reflected light. The general comprising the miliolids, as recently defined, have a three-fold, pitted wall and the potential of becoming the best marker general, stratigraphically and/or environmentally, in the Gulf Coastal Plain Tertiary. The genera with the preceding characteristics are: Miliola, Neaguites, Texina, Picouina, Helentappanella, Hemimiliola, Heteromiliola, and Miliolacostata.

Of the samples studies, the Moodys Branch Formation (Eocene) and the Byram Formation (Oligocene) in Mississippi bear the largest number of individual specimens -- six of the eight genera of the miliolids in the Gulf Coastal Plain. The Crystal River Formation (Eocene) and the Chipola Formation (Miocene) in Florida have a lesser number of miliolids with most having a quinqueloculine chamber arrangement that is similar to the many genera in the Lutetian of France.

The Weches Formation (Eocene) in Texas and the Cane River Formation (Eocene) in Louisiana, also in the samples studied, have two different miliolid genera, Texina and Heteromiliola respectively. The pelagic foraminifera present in the Cane River indicates that its sediment was deposited in deeper water than the Weches. The Yazoo Formation (Eocene) and the Rosefield Formation (Oligocene) in Louisiana, and the Red Bluff and Bynum Formations (Oligocene) in Mississippi also bear the miliolid genus Heteromiliola thus adding credence to it being an environmental marker genus for the Miliolidae.

Marker genera for the basal Eocene appears to be Hemimiliola and Hellentappanella; and for the Oligocene the genera Neaguites, Miliolacostata and Picouina.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90941©1997 GCAGS 47th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana