Cenozoic Siliceous Flagellates from the Fram Strait and the East Greenland Margin: Biostratigraphic and Paleoceanographic Results

More than 110 taxa of siliceous flagellates including silicoflagellates, ebridians, actiniscidians, and synuraceans are tabulated from Cenozoic sediments of Holes 908A and 913B. The assemblages investigated from Hole 908A, Fram Strait, are assigned to the upper Oligocene Cannopilus hemisphaericus Zone of silicoflagellates. The assemblages studied from Hole 913B, East Greenland margin, yielded in the upper part the middle Miocene Spongebria miocenica Zone of ebridians and in the lower part the middle to upper Eocene Corbisema hexacantha Zone of silicoflagellates. The assemblages of siliceous flagellates demonstrate that a permanent surface-water exchange may have existed between the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and probably also the Barents Sea during Eocene and Oligocene times. Minor input of surface-water from the North Atlantic is indicated by certain silicoflagellates for late Oligocene time. Several taxa of silicoflagellates and ebridians were recognized as new, but most of them are treated with open nomenclature. Only 3 ebridian species that characterize middle to upper Eocene and upper Oligocene assemblages are formally introduced as new: Ebriopsis acuta, Hermesinella paraconata, and Hermesinum acus.