Temporal and environmental distribution of microfossils
Revision as of 13:33, 7 July 2014 by Cwhitehurst (talk | contribs) (→Biostratigraphic utility of microfossil groups)
Since a species persists only for a limited amount of geologic time and only in a specific environment, microfossils can be used to date the rocks in which they are found (biostratigraphy) and to indicate the environment in which the sediment was deposited (paleoecology).
Biostratigraphic utility of microfossil groups
Figure 1 shows the geologic periods in which various microfossil groups existed and those periods for which the groups are most useful for dating.
Environmental distribution of microfossil groups
Figure 2 shows the paleoenvironments of various microfossil groups. The width of the bar represents the relative importance of each microfossil group.