Smaller radiate Nummulites of Northwestern Europe

Abstract

After the completion of J. P. H. KAASSCHIETER's monograph on the "Eocene Foraminifera of Belgium" (1961), an extensive collection of smaller radiate Nummulites from the Belgian Eocene remained without specific determination in the collections of the Utrecht Geological Institute. KAASSCHIETERhad found that naming these fossils on the basis of the existing literature would lead to very unsatisfactory results. He felt that a tremendous lot of work in measuring and counting should be needed to arrive at a still dubious ultimate result, for which reason he preferred to leave his collections as an heritage to a later generation. Since a rapid survey of the material shows no clear pattern of development within this group of Nummulites, no single student dared undertake the work. It was not until early 1963, while A. PAPP stayed in Utrecht for three months, that he and P. MARKSdeveloped a working scheme and put everybody available, some fifteen people altogether, to worL. At the end of these three months the results confirmed the previous opinion that the Eocene and Early Oligocene smaller Nummulites of the North Sea basin showed a peculiar evolutionary pattern and that they were of dubious stratigraphic value. Because of these rather disappointing conclusions the work slowed down, although at various time intervals additional data were gathered. Eventually, however, the evolution pattern and the stratigraphic results were considered to be certainly worth publishing in the context of renewed interest and activities around the Nordic Paleogene.