The philosophy of larger foraminiferal biozonation - a discussion.

Biostratigraphy represents a classical, controversial field in Geology; a modern reclothing of the former is actually unnecessary and a number of comprehensive albeit rather formal treatments of these topics exist: for those who like "geologese", glossaries by Schindewolf (1970), Hedberg (1976) and Sigal (1984) among others provide adequate reference. This allows to comment upon a few topics only in biozonations. The main thesis which shall be discussed herein is that the theoretical backbone of Paleogene LF biozonation is essentially the same as that which marked the birth of biostratigraphy as a separate discipline, i.e. that the currently accepted discrete LF zones are Oppelzones. In contrast, continuous (Guex, 1987) biostratigraphic scales (interval, peak and acme zones), widely used in plankton and nannoplankton zonations, differ both in theory and in practice from those based on discrete units, and they moreover rely on a different rock record.