Abstract
Abstract. Brady’s (1884) widely available monograph on foraminifera from the Challenger Expedition is generally assumed to illustrate hundreds of living species from modern seafloor sediment from around the world. This assumption may have contributed to the delay in recognizing the youngest extinction ‘episode’ in the deep sea, which occurred during the mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition. At least 18 of the species illustrated by Brady are part of the group of c. 70 elongate, benthic foraminifera now known to have died out globally between 1.2 and 0.6 million years ago. The figured specimens were sampled from just seven stations that presumably contain relict or reworked sediment, possibly mixed in with Holocene. The majority (14 species) come from two stations (191A, 192) off Kei Islands, Banda Sea, Indonesia. Station 192, from c. 250 m depth, is considerably shallower than the established fossil bathymetric ranges of the extinct species and therefore tectonic uplift is inferred. Additional pre-Holocene or even extinct species may also be among those illustrated by Brady, especially from the seven stations so far identified.
Highlights
BRADY’S CHALLENGER FORAMINIFERA For more than a century Brady’s beautifully illustrated plates of foraminifera dredged by HMS Challenger (Brady, 1884) have been the first reference book consulted by those starting to identify Recent foraminiferal faunas, those from deeper water
MID-PLEISTOCENE EXTINCTION OF DEEP-SEA FORAMINIFERA Studies on Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) cores in the last two decades suggest that a number of the species so well figured in Brady (1884) became extinct globally during the mid-Pleistocene Climatic Transition (e.g. Weinholz & Lutze, 1989; Schönfeld, 1996; Hayward, 2001, 2002; Kawagata et al, 2005)
It is suggested that the illustration of so many of these extinct species in Brady’s (1884) Challenger volume may be one of the main reasons why this early–mid-Pleistocene extinction period in the deep sea was not recognized until relatively recently
Summary
Extinct Pleurostomella brevis Schwager, 1866 Pleurostomella brevis Schwager, 1866 Pleurostomella acuminata Cushman, 1922 Pleurostomella alternans Schwager, 1866 Fursenkoina texturata (Brady, 1884) Pleurostomella obtusa Berthelin, 1880 Pleurostomella obtusa Berthelin, 1880 Orthomorphina jedlitschkai (Thalmann, 1937) Orthomorphina ambigua (Neugeboren, 1856) Stilostomella fistuca (Schwager, 1866) Myllostomella costai (Schwager, 1866) Myllostomella costai (Schwager, 1866) ?Stilostomella retrorsa (Reuss, 1863) Siphonodosaria insecta (Schwager, 1866) Orthomorphina trincherasensis (Bermudez, 1949) Orthomorphina perversa (Schwager, 1866) Plectofrondicularia californica Cushman & Stewart, 1926 Parafrondicularia antonina (Karrer, 1878) Proxifrons inaequalis (Costa, 1855) Siphonodosaria bradyi (Cushman, 1927) Siphonodosaria sagrinensis (Bagg, 1912) Possibly extinct Uvigerina hispida Schwager, 1866 Rectobolivina cf. curta (Cushman, 1926) Trifarina reussi (Cushman, 1913). Orthomorphina jedlitschkai Glandulonodosaria ambigua Stilostomella fistuca Stilostomella consobrina Stilostomella consobrina Stilostomella retrorsa Stilostomella abyssorum Glandulonodosaria sp. Orthomorphina challengeriana Plectofrondicularia helenae Plectofrondicularia helenae Plectofrondicularia advena Nodogenerina virgula Nodogenerina antillea
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