ABSTRACT
Micropaleontological studies of Central America have investigated groups as diverse as foraminifera, radiolarians, ostracods, coccoliths, dinoflagellates and pollen, from rocks of Permian to Pleistocene age. Marine micropaleontology has been applied to the chronologic relationship of sedimentary rocks (biostratigraphy) and their geographic distribution across shallow-water habitats and oceanic water depths, and to the investigation of local to regional paleoenvironments and paleoclimatic change. Terrestrially related micropaleontology has used fossils of diatoms and pollen; pollen studies have primarily addressed regional climate changes over time. This chapter summarizes the distribution and paleoenvironmental or paleoclimatic implications of these diverse groups for Central America by summarizing previous studies that have listed or described the taxa. Publications that have investigated biostratigraphy exclusively are not included herein, as this subject is addressed in Chapter 13. The microfaunas and microfloras are discussed below by their stratigraphic units in chronological order, within the sections on the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, and the Paleogene and Neogene periods of the Cenozoic era. The distribution of the stratigraphic units referred to below is shown in Figure 18.1.
