Endemic vs cosmopolitan tethyan benthic foraminifera from the lower Eocene Panoba Formation, Kohat sub basin, Pakistan: implications for early Eocene warming
Keywords:
Benthic foraminifera; Tethys; Pakistan; Paleogene; Thermal Maximum.Abstract
The Panoba Formation in Kohat sub-basin of the Indus Basin, Pakistan exposes excellent early Eocene tethyan section. In this study a preliminary work on the paleontology of the forty four early Eocene smaller benthic foraminiferal species as well as their potential for paleoclimatological research from the Panoba Formation is carried out. A systematic treatment of the species is based on the diagnostic morphology. These species belongs to two suborders, twenty super families, twenty five families, thirteen subfamilies and twenty seven different genera. Among these foraminifera twenty seven species are agglutinated and seventeen are non agglutinated (calcareous). The biostratigraphic analysis of the Panoba Formation based on benthic foraminifera suggests that the Formation was deposited in basal Ilerdian time, equivalent to larger benthic zones SBZ 5 & 6 and planktic foraminiferal zones E1 and E2 (part). The biofacies analysis suggests that Panoba Formation was deposited in a variety of settings ranging from middle neritic zone to upper bathyal zone environments. The time period of deposition and wide spectrum of depositional depth of the Panoba Formation offers potential material for future paleoclimatological research pertaining to the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) or post PETM scenarios.
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