ABSTRACT

Brasier (1975) pointed out the close relationship between the shallow-water seagrass taxa and larger Foraminifera in the present and employed the Foraminifera to extrapolate the seagrass community back into the early Tertiary and, by inference, even into the later Cretaceous. Eva (1980) extended this analysis into the Caribbean region and extrapolated it there into the Eocene. In a breakthrough paper, Ivany et al. (1990) recognized excellently preserved seagrasses in the Middle Eocene Avon Park Formation of Florida and provided extensive detail on the nature of the seagrass community complex. Selected Foraminifera can be used as indicators of the probable former presence of

a seagrass community, as sirenians, known since the earlier Eocene, are obligate seagrass community feeders with a pantropical-subtropical distribution pattern. Domning (2001) reviewed what is known of sirenian occurrences in the Caribbean Cenozoic and drew conclusions about seagrass communities from this information. Voigt (1981) described some late Cretaceous seagrass immurations caused by attached bryozoans; the seagrasses are taxa distinct from those in the Cenozoic examples.