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Quaternary Foraminifera
of the Caspian-Black Sea-
Mediterranean Corridors:
Volume1
ValentinaYanko
Ponto-Caspian Foraminifera
Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black
Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1
Valentina Yanko
Quaternary Foraminifera
of the Caspian-Black
Sea-Mediterranean Corridors:
Volume 1
Ponto-Caspian Foraminifera
Valentina Yanko
Department of Physical, Marine Geology and Paleontology
Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University
Odessa, Ukraine
Avalon Institute of Applied Science
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
ISBN 978-3-031-12373-3 ISBN 978-3-031-12374-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation,
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not
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The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to
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expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Map in the middle - The Ponto-Caspian- Mediterranean Corridor Around the map foraminiferal
species: 1. Canalifera parkerae Yanko, 1974, 2. Ammonia ammoniformis (d’Orbigny), 1826, 3. Ammobaculites
ponticus Mikhalevich, 1968, 4. Bolivina pseudoplicata Heron-Allen et Earland, 1930, 5. Elphidium ponticum
Dolgopolskaja and Pauli, 1931, 6. Haynesina anglica (Murray), 1965, 7. Bulimina aculeata d’Orbigny, 1826,
8. Eggerelloides scaber (Williamson, 1858)
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
The region known as the Ponto-Caspian includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian
Sea, and the Aral Sea and connecting straits. While this region has been well studied and
described in the Russian and Ukrainian literature, the details are much less widely known by
scientists without access to or knowledge of those works. Valentina Yanko has produced a
synthesis of a vast array of research, including her own and that of her collaborators over the
past 50 years. While this work focuses on the Pleistocene through Recent foraminiferal
assemblages, the implications extend far beyond to interpretation of basin closures throughout
geologic history. And such basin closures include some of the major hydrocarbon sources on
Earth, including those of the Ponto-Caspian region. Many lessons from geologic history appear
in this extensive and detailed description of the repeated cycles of marine flooding and
freshening across a series of related, sometimes interconnected, marginal seas.
The pioneering micropaleontologists in the region that began in the last decades of the
nineteenth century are mentioned in Chap. 1. More importantly, detailed investigations and
descriptions of foraminiferal species and assemblages exploded in the mid-twentieth century.
With the author’s career beginning in the mid-1970s, she was incredibly productive as a
member of the second generation of mid-late twentieth century researchers who were not
simply describing the assemblages but also applying their findings to understanding the
geologic history of this series of basins. When glaciation reduced sea levels worldwide, basins
freshened and oligohaline species prevailed. Subsequent transgressions allowed marine-
influenced taxa to migrate stepwise through the basins.
The series of basins are described in Chap. 2, including their geographic locations as well as
bathymetric and hydrographic features, while touching upon their geologic histories. The
environmental tragedy of the Aral Sea is lamented. Formerly the fourth largest lake in the
world, the Aral Sea has largely dried up, eliminating a once prosperous fishing industry
resulting in economic hardship and human suffering. In the second part of Chap. 2, the author
describes the sources of the more than 30 thousand sediment samples that were summarized and
evaluated in subsequent chapters. The numerous organizations that supported collections and
the many scientists whose works are utilized in the synthesis are recognized and documented.
Samples were collected from grab samples, gravity cores, piston cores, multi cores, box cores,
boreholes, and outcrops, including Quaternary stratotypes. Sites and habitats sampled included
limans, lagoons, river deltas, shelves, and continental slopes. Analyses included lithological as
well as foraminiferal analyses, and often analyses of other shelled biota, especially mollusks.
The discussion of foraminiferal taxonomy in Chap. 3 elaborates on the theme that is
absolutely central to the overall work. Taxonomy is a specialty in which Prof. Yanko has
superb expertise that she has honed throughout her career. As she emphasizes at the beginning
of the chapter, precise taxonomic identification is absolutely essential to high-resolution
stratigraphy and paleoenvironmental analyses. And understanding the basic characteristics
and biological
limitations inherent to higher taxa, specifically the major orders, provides vast insight into
where lower taxa originated, and why they were able to proliferate, or were unsuited to thrive,
across the euryhaline habitats of these marginal seas.
v
vi Foreword
Prof. Yanko emphasizes that recognition and consistent understanding of the characteristics
of each species at all stages of ontogeny are essential to precise identification. She reminds the
reader that a species is composed of many populations that can differ from each other to some
degree as a result of founder effects or adaptations to local conditions. If individuals from these
populations differ consistently in diagnostic morphological characteristics and are geographi-
cally isolated, they are considered as subspecies. Given the frequent isolation of the individual
basins through the Pleistocene and Holocene, local adaptations were inevitable, allowing
differences to emerge that are recognized as subspecies. This extensive analysis on the
relatively recent geologic history of this series of basins provides insight into both the widely
recognized process of allopatric speciation and somewhat lesser-known process of reticulate
evolution, whereby taxa separated for millennia can diverge somewhat, but when populations
are reconnected, new assortments and adaptations can emerge. Thus, reconnection of the basins
has allowed subsequent mixing of those subspecies and occurrences in environmental
conditions to which they have adapted. For example, salinity can be incredibly variable locally
within limans, deltas, and lagoons, on seasonal and interannual time scales, or even daily or
weekly cycles depending upon weather. Prof. Yanko recognizes 173 lower taxa (i.e., species,
subspecies, some of them in open nomenclature) of Quaternary benthic foraminifera across the
Ponto-Caspian basins, providing an excellent review of the principles of taxonomic classifica-
tion of the orders that occur there.
With the essentials of foraminiferal taxonomy established, in Chap. 4 the modern basins are
described in regional detail. For example, the Black Sea study sites are subdivided into
14 regions, with environmental conditions described and the lower taxa identified for each.
This chapter provides detailed lessons in regional geography, as well as both regional and
sometimes obscure terminology. The reader will want to keep bookmarks on location maps and
detailed facies, bathymetric and salinity definitions. The reader should also keep in mind that
this chapter describes something like 70 years of research on thousands of samples in places
that many readers may be unfamiliar. Don’t be discouraged, the details are here for historical
reference and to define and support syntheses to come both later in the chapter and in the
volume.
The fossil assemblages of the Pleistocene and Holocene are presented and interpreted in
substantial detail in Chap. 5. The chapter begins by discussing the diversity of stratigraphic
schemes used by researchers who have carried out investigations in the region. Prof. Yanko
provides the plethora of terminology essential to understand the regional geology and
interpretations of the glacial-interglacial (i.e., regressive/ transgressive) cycles of the Ponto-
Caspian Corridor. Biostratigraphic diagnoses of fossil foraminiferal assemblages were based on
the appearance of new species/subspecies that characterized an assemblage. Eco-stratigraphy
and paleo-events are recognized lithologically and from changes in dominance of foraminiferal,
Molluscan, and other fossil taxa, in particular, with their relationships to salinity. This
chapter represents a synthesis of multidisciplinary studies of an enormous amount of geological
material and, as such, should be a treasure for anyone interested in the region or in the level of
detail available from a synthesis of data on a series of interconnected basins during times of
sea-level fluctuations. Another potential readership should be anthropologists and
archaeologists studying this important corridor of migrations of hominid populations.
The paleogeographic origins of the Pleistocene foraminiferal taxa of the Ponto-Caspian
basins, and an exploration of why certain taxa were able to thrive in the individual basins in
response to opening and closing of corridors, are explored in Chap. 6. Among the species and
subspecies, about 40% are calcareous members of the order Rotaliida, nearly a quarter are
Miliolida, and about 20% are Lagenida. The other roughly 15% include calcareous Buliminida
and members of three agglutinated orders. The foraminiferal species and subspecies found in
the Caspian are overwhelmingly endemics (88%), with a few cosmopolitan species that are
known to inhabit brackish environments. More than half the species and subspecies found in
Caspian are agglutinated. Thus, the Caspian fauna represent descendants of Tethyan taxa that
have diverged in isolation. That abundance of endemic species could provide outstanding
material for molecular-genetic and morphological comparisons of the endemic species with
their likely closest Tethyan relatives with outstanding potential for addressing both rates and
degrees of divergence. This is just one small example of the wealth of future studies for which
the amazing details documented in this book could provide impetus. In contrast, the species and
subspecies found in the Black Sea region (Pont) are predominantly Mediterranean immigrants
(83%), with endemics and Caspian immigrants accounting for most of the remainder at less
than 10% each.
Foreword vii
Prof. Yanko documents eight major waves of foraminiferal migration into the Black Sea
from the Mediterranean, corresponding to major glacio-eustatic sea-level transgression events.
The fourth wave brought 52 lower taxa, many of which are not still found, likely indicating
higher salinities than presently occur in the Black Sea. A distinctive feature of the faunas is the
predominance of the Ammoniidae-Elphidiidae shelf genera. All Pontic foraminifera are either
shallow-dwelling or descendants of shallow-dwelling taxa, reflecting the shallow nature of the
straights that connected the Black Sea with the Mediterranean.
The influence of anthropogenic pollution—freshwater input that results in low and variable
salinities and natural methane emissions— is summarized in Chap. 7, providing examples of
applications of meiobenthos, especially foraminifera, to studies of both naturally occurring
stresses and those associated with human activities. This chapter uses results from three sets of
cruises that sampled more than 240 stations on the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea. A major
advantage of studying foraminifera is that their tests are commonly preserved in sediment. And,
in studies of environmental stresses, morphological anomalies are commonly seen in the tests of
the foraminifera that lived and grew under stressful conditions. Pyritization of tests is another
stress indicator. Ammonia tepida, A. compacta, A. ammoniformis, Canalifera parkerae, and
Porosononion martkobi ponticus are taxa that can survive in polluted or otherwise stressed
environments on the Black Sea shelf, and their tests most frequently exhibit morphological
anomalies or pyritization.
Chapter 8 represents a volume on its own! Taxonomic descriptions are provided for a vast
majority of the genera, species, and subspecies encountered in the region. Morphological
descriptions include scanning electron micrographs, statements regarding variability, and
comparisons with similar taxa. In most cases, ecological settings and known distributions in
the region are also provided. Thus, this chapter will provide a treasure trove of information for
others studying modern and Quaternary-fossil foraminifera in this region.
This comprehensive presentation and synthesis of the foraminiferal faunas of the Ponto-
Caspian region is encyclopedic. The book will be an essential resource for anyone working on
the foraminifera, meiobenthos, ecology, paleoecology, biostratigraphy, and Quaternary history
of this region. Ultimately, even more valuable may be the potential insights and future studies
that readers of this work, or of individual chapters, may envision within the region or far from it,
either geographically or in geologic time.
It is my great pleasure to introduce this book. I am in awe of the detailed information from
thousands of samples from her own work and that of many other researchers. I am even more
impressed by the syntheses and ecostratigraphic interpretations, and the potential for this work
to inspire a diverse array of future investigations, ranging from molecular and morphological
evolutionary studies of the development of endemic species, to detailed investigation of closing
basins in the Permo-Carboniferous, to many other possibilities that are far beyond my
imagination.
College of Marine Science
University of South Florida
St Petersburg, FL, USA
e-mail: pmuller@usf.edu
Pamela Hallock
Preface
In these prefatory paragraphs, the author presents essential information that includes the
background for the creation of this book, the process by which it came to be, and appreciative
words for those who made this publication possible.
The study area known as the Ponto-Caspian includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the
Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea (currently dried up), and connecting straits. The Black Sea, with a
maximum depth of 2212 m, is the easternmost of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean basin and the
most isolated sea of the modern Global Ocean. The Sea of Azov, with depth up to 14 m, is
connected to the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait, which is 45 km long, 4.5 km wide, and up to
6 m deep. The shallowness of the strait results in limited water exchange between the two
basins. The Bosporus Strait meanders along its 35 km in length and 0.7–3.5 km in width. It is
35.8 m deep, on average, with a few elongate potholes (about 110 m in depth each) on the
bottom. Carrying 5–10 times more water flow than the Kerch Strait, waterflow within the strait
is stratified and bidirectional, resembling salt-wedge estuarine circulation. Limited transport of
low density, lower-salinity (average 18 psu) water from the Black Sea flows southward; while
the dominant transport is subsurface, flowing northward, carrying more saline (average 38 psu),
denser seawater from the Sea of Marmara into the Black Sea.
The Black Sea exhibits the standard oceanic provinces of continental shelf, slope, and
abyssal plain. The extensive continental shelf accounts for 25% of the sea area; the isobath
200 m is commonly taken as the shelf boundary. The sea was formed at the end of the Mesozoic
as a back-arc basin. The details and taphonomic conditions of the Black Sea are unusual. It is
the world’s largest anoxic (oxygen-free) marine basin. Its strongly stratified water column
possesses
(1) a thin, well-oxygenated surface layer (20–30 m) with low salinity and warm
temperatures; (2) a low-oxygen (suboxic) transition layer (30–150 m); and (3) a thick bottom
layer of colder, denser, and more saline water lacking oxygen but high in sulfides.
The Caspian Sea is completely isolated from the World Ocean and thus is technically an
endorheic lake. It is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Northern, Middle, and
Southern Caspian. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf and is very shallow,
with an average depth of only 5–6 m; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume. The
Middle and Southern Caspian account for 33% and 66% of the total water volume, respectively.
The Aral Sea was also an endorheic lake; lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it
began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up by the 2010s. UNESCO added the
historical documents concerning the collapse of the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World
Register as a unique resource to study this “environmental tragedy.”
The pioneering micropaleontologists in the region began their work in the last decades of the
nineteenth century. Detailed investigations and descriptions of foraminiferal species and
assemblages exploded in the mid-twentieth century. Since the mid-1970s, the author of this
book has extensively studied taxonomy, ecology, paleoecology, paleogeography, and biostra-
tigraphy of the Ponto-Caspian region, specializing in benthic foraminifera.
This book contains an introduction, eight chapters, a conclusions section, and an extensive
reference list for each chapter, many of which were published in regional languages, and as
such are not well known in the west. The Ponto-Caspian Quaternary benthic foraminifera are
ix
represented by 7 orders, 35 families, 66 genera, 173 species (some in open nomenclature), and
subspecies (i.e., lower taxa). Of the 173, 123 lower taxa inhabit the Black and Caspian Seas
today. This in-depth study of benthic foraminifera provides invaluable data on taxonomy of
benthic foraminifera, sea level, and salinity changes as well as pollution monitoring and
contouring methane reservoirs under the sea bottom. The 107 figures present regional maps,
data analyses, and other essential information. The 36 plates that present SEM images of
foraminifera include images to illustrate descriptions of all species and subspecies of forami-
nifera found by the author in the Ponto-Caspian region. The coverage encompasses both
terrestrial and underwater areas, and a broad approach ranging from geological subjects to
environmental applications.
x Preface
Odessa, Ukraine Valentina Yanko
Introduction
This monograph is written on the basis of the long-lasting study of the late Quaternary benthic
foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian region (e.g., Yanko 1974, 1989, 1990; Yanko-Hombach
2007; Yanko and Kondariuk 2020). The region is defined here as the large geographical area
covering (from west to east) the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the ancient Manych Outlet, the
Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, their coasts, and connecting straits. This Pionto-Caspian is of a
strategic importance not only for the Caspian (Republic of Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran,
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan) and Black Sea (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia,
Turkey) countries but also for at least 17 other countries, which share a drainage basin of the
Ponto-Caspian Region that is one-third the size of the European continent.
The Ponto-Caspian region acts as a paleoenvironmental amplifier and as a sensitive recorder
for climatic events where variations in sea level, hydrological regime, and coastline migration
are especially pronounced due to its geographical location and semi-isolation from the open
ocean (e.g., Fedorov 1978; Yanko 1990). It also provides a linkage between the marine and
continental realms. This region is among the basins, which have been cited in literature as
having conditions suitable for natural gas hydrate reserves that are increasingly being consid-
ered as a potential energy resource (Kvenvolden 1993). Lately, this region has spurred a
tremendous international interest as a possible place where the biblical story of the Great
Flood (Ryan et al. 1997, 2003; Chepalyga 2007) originated, encouraging a new round of
controversial research on paleoenvironmental reconstructions, e.g., the hydrological regime in
connecting straits, transition from a lacustrine to a marine environment, an influence of the
Black Sea outflow on deposition of the Eastern Mediterranean sapropels as well as past/present/
future adaptation of humans to environmental change (Yanko-Hombach 2007; Yanko-
Hombach 2007; Yanko-Hombach et al. 2014). During the Late Quaternary, the Black Sea
was repeatedly isolated from the Mediterranean Sea by sea-level fluctuations. Geographical
location and periodic connection of the Black Sea either with the Mediterranean or Caspian seas
predetermined specific hydrogeological regimes in the basin, making it an excellent paleoenvir-
onmental amplifier and a sensitive recorder of climatic events
All this makes the Ponto-Caspian region and its foraminiferal assemblages unique, both
from the modern and fossil perspectives, and also in the context of its
tectonic history and sea-level changes in isolated and semi isolated from the World Ocean
basins. Because these basins are quite different from more oceanic regions, the author is dealing
with more subtle distinctions with respect to salinities and estuarine conditions, and therefore at
the end of the volume, there is a glossary of terms that includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov,
the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea (currently dried up), and connecting straits.
The potential of benthic foraminifera for paleoenvironmental reconstructions is well known.
These hard-shelled microorganisms have tremendous taxonomic diversity enabling a wide
range of biological reactions to varied environmental factors, including many species-specific
responses to ecological conditions (Fursenko 1978), which adds to their potential as index
species for monitoring sea-level and salinity changes. They have very short reproductive
cycles—6 months to 1 year (Boltovskoy 1964)—and rapid growth (Walton 1964) that makes
even their community structure particularly responsive to environmental change. Their tests are
xi
References
xii References
readily preserved in the sediments and can record evidence of environmental variability through
time. They are small and abundant compared to other larger, hard-shelled taxa (such as
mollusks), making them particularly easy to recover in statistically significant numbers
(Yanko et al. 1999).
The main goal of the work is taxonomy and ecology of the Late Quaternary benthic
foraminifera with hard tests and their application for biostratigraphy, environmental
reconstructions, and paleogeography of the Ponto-Caspian region. To reach the goal the
following objectives have been set: (1) detailed description of recent and Late Quaternary
benthic foraminifera from bottom sediments and coastal outcrops of the Ponto-Caspian region
in order to establish their taxonomic classification; (2) determination of the ecological
preferences for all lower taxa in order to supplement the classification with ecological/paleo-
ecological information; (3) determination of biofacial types among the Late Quaternary
foraminiferal assemblages as well as their migration in space and time; (4) based on objectives
1–3 high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the Ponto-Caspian region
supplemented whenever possible by isotopic and OSL records.
Boltovskoy E (1964) Seasonal occurrences of some living foraminifera in Puerto Deseado’ (Patagonia,
Argentina). ICES J Mar Sci 29(2):136–145
Chepalyga AL (2007) The late glacial great flood in the Ponto-Caspian basin. In: Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert
AS, Panin N, Dolukhanov PM (eds) The Black Sea flood question: changes in coastline, climate and human
settlement. Dordrecht, Springer, pp 119–148
Fedorov PV (1978) Pleistotsen Ponto-Kaspiya (The Pleistocene of the Ponto- Caspian). Moscow, Nauka (in
Russian)
Fursenko AV (1978) Vvedenie v izuchenie foraminifer (Introduction to the study of Foraminifera). Trudy
Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki 391. Novosibirsk, Nauka, 242 pp (in Russian)
Kvenvolden KA (1993) Gas hydrates-geological perspective and global change. Rev Geophys 31(2):173–187
Ryan WBF, Pitman WC III, Major CO, Shimkus K, Maskalenko V, Jones GA, Dimitrov P, Görür N, Sak{nç M,
Yüce H (1997) An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf. Mar Geol 138:119–126
Ryan WBF, Major CO, Lericolais G, Goldstein SL (2003) Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea. Ann Rev
Earth Planet Sci 31:525–554
Walton WR (1964) Recent foraminiferal ecology and paleoecology. In: Imbrie J, Newell ND (eds) Approaches
to paleoecology, pp. 151–237
Yanko V (1974) Novye vidy bentosnykh foraminifer iz golode-novykh otlozheniy Severo-8apadnogo shelfa
Chernogo morya (New species of benthic foraminifera from Holocene sediments of the north-western shelf
of the Black Sea). Paleontologicheskiy Sbornik 11:24–30 (in Russian)
Yanko V (1989) Quaternary Foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian Region (the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the
Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea): Taxonomy, biostratigraphy, history, ecology. Doctoral thesis. Moscow State
University, two volumes, 1000 pp (in Russian)
Yanko V (1990) Stratigraphy and paleogeography of marine Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of the southern
seas of the USSR. Memorie della Società Geologica Italiana 44:167–187
Yanko V, Kondariuk T (2020) Origin and taxonomy of the Neopleistocene-Holocene Ponto-Caspian benthic
foraminifera. Geologichnyy zhurnal 1:17–33
Yanko V, Arnold A, Parker W (1999) The effect of marine pollution on benthic foraminifera. In: Sen Gupta BK
(ed) Modern Foraminifera. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic, The Netherlands, pp 217–238
Yanko-Hombach VV (2007) Controversy over Noah’s flood in the Black Sea: geological and foraminiferal
evidence from the shelf. In: Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert AS, Panin N, Dolukhanov PM (eds) The Black Sea
flood question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Dordrecht, Springer, pp 149–204
Yanko-Hombach V, Mudie PJ, Kadurin S, Larchenkov E (2014) Holocene marine transgression in the
Black Sea: new evidence from the northwestern Black Sea shelf. Quat Int 345:100–118
Acknowledgments
The author has studied the Quaternary Ponto-Caspian foraminifera for nearly 50 years, and the
results of her research are presented in a significant number of monographs and articles, many
of which are published in Russian or Ukrainian. The information presented in this book
represents the results of research conducted not only by the author but also by many geologists
from an array of scientific and applied geological organizations who collected sediment from
throughout the region. Samples for foraminiferal analysis were obtained from multiple
organizations (e.g., Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences; Southern Branch of
the Institute of Oceanology, USSR Academy of Sciences; Institute of Oceanology of the
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Yuzhmorgeologiya, GeoEcoMar; Odessa I.I. Mechnikov
National University; Prichernomor DGRP, and some others with which the author cooperated
on the contractual and/or scientific basis).
The contributions of individual experts are acknowledged in the text. Here, the author
expresses deep gratitude to A.K. Bogdanowicz, V.A. Krasheninnikov, N.N. Subbotina, and
A.V. Fursenko, who taught the author the basics of micropaleontology at the beginning of her
carrier. Prof. I.Ya. Yatsko instilled a love for foraminifera, which the author carried through her
whole life and to whom she is especially grateful.
All transliterations of cited sources published in languages using the Cyrillic alphabet
comply with the requirements of international standards for bibliographic references according
to the US Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/russian.pdf).
Exceptions are the names of authors, which we have left in their own preferred transliterations,
as well as geographical names as presented most commonly in the majority of English papers.
The author also is deeply grateful to the following individuals: Prof. Pamela Hallock from
University of South Florida, USA, for editing the English text, providing extremely valuable
comments, and composing the Foreword for this book; Prof. Ronald Martin, Delaware Univer-
sity, USA, and Prof. Lyudmila Vorobyeva, the Institute of Marine Biology of the National
Academy of Science of Ukraine, for review of the book and their very useful comments;
Dr. Irena Motnenko (the author’s daughter) for drawing of the inner structure of foraminiferal
tests (Chap. 3) and some other pictures; Dr. Revinder Sidhu, Microscopy and Materials
Characterization Facility Manager (Manitoba Institute for Materials, University of Manitoba,
Canada) for her help in imaging of microfauna by SEM (Paleontological plates 1–36); and the
managing team at Springer, especially Mr. Solomon George, Project Co-ordinator (Books) for
Springer Nature, for his guidance and patience in awaiting delivery of the finished manuscript.
This book is a contribution to IGCP 521 “Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor during the last
30 ky: sea-level change and human adaptation”; INQUA 0501 “Caspian-Black
Sea-Mediterranean Corridor during the last 30 ka: sea-level change and human adaptive
strategies”; IGCP 610 “From the Caspian to Mediterranean: environmental change and
human response during the quaternary”; the Russian–Ukrainian project No. Φ28/428-2009
“The Northwestern Black Sea region and global climate change: environmental evolution
during the last 20 ka and forecast for the 21st century” sponsored by the State Fund for
Fundamental Research, Ukraine; “Study the interaction between nature and human society in
the north-western Black Sea coast during the late Pleistocene and Holocene,” “To study the
xiii
xiv Acknowledgments
processes of methane formation and spatial distribution of methane in the Black Sea and to
theoretically justify its influence on eco- and geosystems of the basin,” “Development of
forecast criteria for searching for hydrocarbons in the Black Sea on the basis of the theory of
fluidogenesis”; all four sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine; COST
Action TD0902 SPLASHCOS project “Submerged prehistoric archaeology and landscapes of
the continental shelf ”; EU-FP6 project HERMES “Hotspot ecosystems research on the margins
of European seas”; EU BLACK SEA ERA.NET-WAPCOAST project “Water pollution
prevention options for coastal zones and tourist areas: Application to Danube Delta front
area”; INCO-COPERNICUS “Pollution by oil and herbicide of the Black Sea: Novel
technologies of detection and biological impact”; EC (AVICENNE Program, AVI CT92-
0007).
Abstract
This volume contains a heretofore unavailable compilation of detailed information on the
Ponto- Caspian foraminifera. The region as a whole consists of the remnants of the Tethys
and Parathethys seaways, totaling in area a drainage basin one-third the size of the entire
European continent, and is of strategic importance to the surrounding countries. Foraminifera
are highly reliable paleoenvironmental indicators, ubiquitous in marine environments, and
taxonomically diverse, which give them the potential for a wide range of biological responses
to varied environmental factors. Their tests are readily preserved and can record evidence of
environmental change through time, thus providing historical baseline data even in the absence
of background studies. The book includes taxonomic descriptions for 152 species and subspe-
cies (i.e., lower taxa) from the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea. For the
majority of them, SEM images and descriptions, as well as data on ecology, paleoecology,
distribution, location, and material, are provided. The book will be useful to specialists in the
Quaternary history of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors as well as those in
environmental monitoring and risk assessment. It can be used by students studying marine
geology and paleontology to serve as a framework for future investigations of the paleoclimatic
history of the Ponto-Caspian region.
xv
Contents
1 State-of-the-Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Foraminifera of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Caspian and Aral Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Our Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Study Area, Material, and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Study Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Material and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Statistical Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 Stratigraphic Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1 General Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 Principles of Taxonomic Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 Agglutinated Taxa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 Taxonomic Classification of the Order Miliolida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.5 Taxonomic Classification of Order Lagenida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.6 Taxonomic Classification of Order Rotaliida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.6.1 Test Morphology and Accepted Terminology of Rotaliids . . . . . . . 33
3.6.2 Systematics and Genetic Interrelations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.7 Taxonomic Classification of Order Buliminida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.8 Systematics and Comparison with Other Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4 Modern Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2 Modern Foraminifera of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.1 Northwestern Deltas, Limans, and Lagoons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2.2 Northwestern (Including Western Crimean) Shelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.3 Eastern Crimean Shelf, Kerch Strait, and Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.2.4 Caucasian Shelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.5 Bulgarian, Southwestern, and Bosphorus Outlet Shelf . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.3 Modern Foraminifera of the Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3.1 North Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3.2 Middle Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3.3 South Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.3.4 Bays and Straits of the Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.4 Modern Foraminifera of the Aral Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.6 Lateral Rows of Modern Foraminiferal Assemblages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.7 Quantitative Distribution and Ecology of Benthic Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . 80
xvii
xviii Contents
4.8 Bionomic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.8.1 Black Sea and Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.8.2 Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.8.3 Aral Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.9 Ecological Classification of Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.10 Use of Modern Foraminifers for Bio- and Ecostratigraphy
and Facies Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5 Quaternary Bio- and Ecostratigraphy, with Elements of Paleogeography
of the Ponto-Caspian Corridors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.2 Caspian Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.2.1 Eopleistocene (Apsheronian Regional Stage) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.2.2 Lower Neopleistocene (Bakinian Stage) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.2.3 Middle Neopleistocene (Urundzhikian and Gyurgyanian Stages) . . . 121
5.2.4 Upper Neopleistocene (Khazarian and Khvalynian Stages) . . . . . . . 124
5.2.5 Holocene (Novocaspian Stage) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.2.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.3 Black Sea Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.3.1 Eopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.3.2 Lower Neopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.3.3 Middle Neopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.3.4 Upper Neopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.3.5 Holocene (ca. 10 ky BP–Present) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
5.4 Correlation of Stratigraphic Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
5.5 Pleistocene Intrusions from the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas
into the Black Sea: Reconstructions Based on Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
6 Origin and Taxonomy of the Pleistocene Ponto-Caspian Benthic
Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
6.2 Caspian Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
6.3 Black Sea Region (Pont) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
6.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
7 Benthic Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Change
in the Black Sea in Space and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
7.2 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress Caused by Herbicides
and Oil Pollution (INCO-COPERNICUS Case Study) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
7.3 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress Caused by River
Discharge (WAPCOAST Case Study) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
7.4 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress by Methane
Emissions (HERMES Case Study) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
7.5 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress on the
Neopleistocene-Holocene Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
7.6 Morphological Deformities of Foraminiferal Tests as Indicators of
Environmental Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
8 Systematic Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Contents xix
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Appendix 1: Alphabetical Index to Genera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Appendix 2: Addresses of Studied Outcrops on the Black Sea Coast . . . . . . . . . . 332
Paleontological Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Alphabetical Index to Genera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Alphabetical Index to Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
About the Author
Photo taken in September, 2019 during field work on the Black Sea coast
Valentina Yanko Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences; Professor, Head of the
Department of Physical, Marine Geology and Paleontology; Director of the Scientific and
Educational Center for Geoarchaeology, Marine and Ecological Geology of the Odessa
I.I. Mechnikov National University; and President of the Avalon Institute of Applied Sciences,
Canada. She graduated from Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University (former Odessa
I.I. Mechnikov State University). Her main scientific interests include: geology, specialty
marine geology; paleoecology and ecology; paleontology, specialty paleontology of
invertebrates; ecological micropaleontology; foraminifera of intercontinental basins (Mediter-
ranean Sea, Sea of Marmara, Black Sea, Sea of Azov, Caspian Sea, Aral Sea); foraminifera as
indicators of natural and anthropogenic stress; ecotoxicology of foraminifera and their chemical
defense mechanisms; marine Quaternary geology and paleoceanography; paleoclimatology;
global sea-level changes; Quaternary history, paleoceanography, glacial and intraglacial
epochs.
xxi
1
In addition to, and often in collaboration with, a variety
State-of-the-Art
Abstract
The history of research on Ponto-Caspian Quaternary
foraminifera at the end of the nineteenth century to the
present is introduced. The earliest report from the Crimean
region was by Pereialsvtseva (Novorossiysk.ob-va
yestestvoisp 10(2):79–114 (in Russian), 1886), who
noted nine species. At the very beginning of the twentieth
century, Zernov (Yezhegodnik zool. muzeya AN, Sankt
Petresburg 13(4):28–35 (in Russian), 1906) wrote that
foraminifera are scarce in the Black Sea. In contrast,
Dolgoplskaya and Pauli (Trudy Karadagskoy nauchnoy
stantsii imeni T.I. Vyazemskogo 4:23–48 (in Russian),
1931) found foraminifera to be abundant and contribute
a significant proportion of recent benthic assemblages.
Research carried out in the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait,
and the Sea of Azov, as well as near the Bosphorus outlet,
was conducted by researchers from the USSR, Bulgaria,
Romania, and Georgia. The first data on Caspian
foraminifera were presented by Ehrenberg in 1873, who
reported 23 species. The earliest observations from the
Aral Sea found only two species. Intensive study of taxon-
omy, quantitative distribution, and ecology of live (Rose
Bengal stained) foraminifera in the Caspian and Aral Seas
and their comparison with recent foraminifera from other
basins was carried out by Mayer (Vertikal’noye
raspredeleniye foraminifer v Kaspiyskom more. In: Maev
YeG (ed) Kompleksnye issledovaniya Kaspiyskogo
morya 6, pp 101–107 (in Russian), 1974a, Foraminifery
Kaspiyskogo i Aral’skogo morey (Foraminifera of the
Caspian and Aral seas). Avtoref. Dis. kand. biol. Nauk.
Moscow State University, 24 pp (in Russian), 1979b).
of other researchers working in the region, the author has
carried out more than 50 years of research on the taxon-
omy, ecology/paleoecology, paleogeography, and biostra-
tigraphy of Ponto-Caspian benthic foraminifera. This
chapter introduces extensive exploration of the northwest-
ern Black Sea, along the Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and
Caucasian shelves, as well as the northern exit of the
Bosphorus Strait, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, and
the Mediterranean Sea. Fossil assemblages from numer-
ous Pleistocene stratotypes were studied in the coastal
zone of the Ponto-Caspian region. The application of
benthic foraminifera to reconstruction of sea-level change
and coastline migration in regard to the Great Flood
Hypotheses in the Black Sea was also investigated. Most
recently, the focus has been on the use of benthic forami-
nifera and other meiobenthic organisms (nematodes,
ostracods) to contour reservoirs of methane stored under
the seabed.
Altogether, 173 benthic and 7 planktonic species and
subspecies (i.e., lower taxa) have been recorded, with
18 previously reported species not found. Thirty lower
taxa belong to agglutinated foraminifera; the rest are cal-
careous. A vast majority of them are described, illustrated,
and supplemented by the data on biostratigraphy and
paleoecology in subsequent chapters.
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
V. Yanko, Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0_1
1
Keywords
Ponto-Caspian · Quaternary · Benthic foraminifera · His-
tory of study
1.1 Foraminifera of the Black Sea and Sea
of Azov
Initially, nine species (no descriptions, no pictures) of benthic
foraminifera were listed by Pereialsvtseva (1886) in the
Sevastopol Bay and Crimea and were cited by Ostroumov
(1893) and Sovinskiy (1904). Other scientists (Zernov 1901,
1906, 1913; Andrusov 1892; Arkhangel’skiy and Strakhov
1938) just mentioned the presence of foraminifera in the
Black Sea without any identification. Chishkoff (1912)
found Rotalia veneta M.Sch., Polystomella strigilata d’Orb,
and Quinqueloculina fusca Brady.
On the Bulgarian shelf, Lepsi ( ) identified
Ammodiscus incertus d’Orb and Peneriplis sp. This list was
later expanded by Velkanov ( ) who identified 26 benthic
species (no description, no pictures) and Velkanova ( )
who described 43 recent species (39 of them were pictured)
from a water depth above 65 m. Dolgopolskaya and Pauli
( ) pictured and described ten species of live foraminifera
from the Karadag Biological Station, Crimean Peninsula,
providing also their ecological requirements. While Zernov
( ) considered that foraminifera are scarce in the Black
Sea, Dolgopolskaya and Pauli ( ) emphasized that fora-
minifera are abundant and make a significant proportion of
benthic assemblages.
1931
1906
1931
1981
1957
1931
2 1 State-of-the-Art
On the Romanian shelf, foraminifera were firstly men-
tioned by Margineanu (1958) who calculated the percentage
of Ammonia and Nonion in foraminiferal assemblages.
Baĉescu and Margineanu (1959) documented the presence
of a few Mediterranean species and even planktonic
Globigerina bulloides (d’Orb) in this area. Macarovici et al.
(1958) and Macarovici and Cehan-Jonesi (1961, 1962, 1966)
described the distribution of Rose Bengal-stained foraminif-
era in the surface sediments of the Romanian shelf. Among
14 benthic species, Ammonia was dominant. The highest
abundance of Ammonia was discovered at a water depth of
20–45 m, salinity 15.0–16.5‰, and temperature 10 °C.
On the northwestern Ukrainian shelf, Didkovskiy (1959)
described three foraminiferal assemblages dominated by
Ammonia beccarii (Linne) var. risilla, var. n, Nonion, and
Ammonia beccarii (Linne) at a water depth of 4–48 m
between the Danube Delta and Egorlitsky Bay. He
documented 29 species and varieties; some of them were
considered as new. No pictures and descriptions were
provided for these species, bringing them into the category
of nomen nudum. In 1969, Didkovskiy documented 36 spe-
cies and varieties near the northern exit of the Bosphorus.
Some of them, such as Florilus boueanum (d’Orbigny), were
likely reworked from the Miocene.
Twenty-three species and three subspecies of benthic
foraminifera were documented by Morozova (1964) from
the Crimean and Caucasian shelf at water depth 0–103 m.
These taxa were grouped in three geographical assemblages:
northeastern with dominance of Rotaliidae, Discorbiidae, and
Nonionida distributed at the Caucasian shelf; northwestern
with dominance of Rotaliidae, Miliolidae, and agglutinated
foraminifera distributed counterclockwise from the north-
western Crimea to the Danube Delta; and western assemblage
distributed in the Danube Delta and dominated by Rotalia
beccarii. The latter one was most impoverished compared to
all others. This author noticed that the diversity of foraminif-
era increases with depth due to an appearance of Lagenidae
and Polymorphinidae below 59-m isobath.
Mikhalevich (1968) described 27 species of benthic fora-
minifera from the southern Crimean shelf. Kirienko (1979)
tried to interpret warm–cold episodes in the geological sec-
tion of the Bulgarian shelf using left alterations of left and
right coiling of Ammonia tests.
metals.
The most detailed work on recent Black Sea foraminifera
was published by Tufescu (1974a, b). She synthesized previ-
ously obtained (1967–1974) data (Tufescu 1967, 1968a, b,
1969a, b, 1970, 1971, 1973). Based on 146 stations (depth
0.2–62 m), she described the ecology, zoogeography, and
evolution of 21 species, 17 of which were pictured. Based on
morphometrical analysis, she divided A. beccarii into
A. beccarii sensu stricto and A. tepida.
Makaveeva (1979) briefly described the quantitative dis-
tribution of five Elphidium and Quinqueloculina species in
the Karkinitskiy, Tendrovskiy, and Egorlitskiy Bays and
northern Black Sea. She concluded that these epiphytic fora-
minifera have their highest abundance (225,000 ind/m2
) on
some algae.
A very preliminary study of the Sea of Azov foraminifera
was performed by Didkovskiy (1958) who identified nine
benthic species and concluded that foraminifera of the Sea
of Azov are significantly impoverished compared to those in
the Black Sea.
Fossil foraminifera from the ODDP drills 379, 380, and
381 in the Black Sea were studied by Cheorghian (1978) who
documented 29 benthic species (no pictures, no description)
in the Miocene, Pliocene, and Quaternary sediments. He did
not discover foraminifera in the postglacial sediments
although reworked foraminiferal tests were present through-
out as was also noticed by Khrustalev and Shcherbakov
(1974) for different geological age sequences. Interestingly,
the number of reworked foraminifera increased with the
proportion of coarse sediments.
Brief data on Quaternary foraminifera of the Kerch Strait
were presented by Suprunova (1980) allowing her to divide
Quaternary sediments into Drevneuxinian (Old Euxinian),
Neoeuxinian (New Euxinian), Drevnechernomorian (Old
Black Sea) and Novochernomorian (New Black Sea) layers.
Kitovani (1971) and Barg et al. (1982) found benthic forami-
nifera in the Pleistocene sediments of the Georgian and
Crimean coasts, respectively.
Temlekov and Mutchinova (1999) investigated the quan-
titative distribution of the sublittoral benthic foraminifera
from the Bulgarian Black Sea coast (the Kiten inlet) and
correlated the number of Ammonia and Elphidium specimens
with the water depth and grain size of sediments.
The taxonomic composition and distribution of foraminif-
era in the surface sediment from the Kazachya Bay, Crimea,
were studied by Anikeeva (2005). Twenty species of benthic
foraminifera were identified at 25 stations. Specimens of the
genera Ammonia, Elphidium, and Quinqueloculina were the
most common. This author failed to correlate foraminiferal
distributions to certain environmental factors, e.g., heavy
1.2 Caspian and Aral Seas 3
However, Kravchuk (1999, 2004) discovered that in fact
benthic foraminifera are excellent indicators of marine pollu-
tion in the Black Sea. She identified 33 species from
19 genera and 10 families in the northwestern part of the
basin. The highest number of species were Elphidiidae (8 spe-
cies) and Ammonoidea (4 species). Agglutinated foraminif-
era are represented by rare specimens of Ab. ponticus
Mikhalevich and Di. imperspica Yanko. A decrease in the
number of species and specimens as well as an increase in the
proportion of morphological deformities, stunting, and
pyritization of foraminifera was attributed to pollution by
domestic sewage and heavy metals.
Temlekov et al. (2006) provided an updated checklist of
the recent foraminifera from the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
He provided a list of 107 species from 56 genera, 32 families,
and 10 orders largely repeating the list of foraminifera
provided by Yanko in 1989. The most common species
belonging to the Ammonia, Elphidium, Cribroelphidium,
and Fisurina genera were pictured in SEM. This author also
provides a synecological characteristic of the foraminiferal
communities inhabiting five types of sediment from the upper
sublittoral (down to 20-m depth), seashore pools, and river
mouths of the Bulgarian South Black Sea area, Temlekov
(2008). He determined the species’ frequency of occurrence,
the dominant structure, and similarity of the foraminiferal
communities.
Kondariuk (2018) studied the lateral distribution of mor-
phological deformations in 15 foraminiferal tests from the
Romanian shelf of the Black Sea in connection with the
influence of the freshwater inflow of the Danube River. She
emphasized the possibility of using them as indicators of
river inflow influence.
Some researchers studied soft foraminifera from the Black
Sea (e.g., Sergeeva and Anikeeva 2018). But we never found
soft foraminifera in our samples neither among recent nor
fossil foraminifera and as so their description is not provided
in a given monograph.
1.2 Caspian and Aral Seas
The first data on the Caspian foraminifera were presented by
Ehrenberg (1873) who found 23 species in the surface
sediments of 132 stations located at 6–836 m water depth.
Most of the species were distributed above a 25-m isobath;
with depth, their number decreased to 1–2 species. At least
two species (Rotalia globulosa Ehrenberg and Textularia
globulosa Ehrenberg) were recognized as reworked from
the Cretaceous sediments. Much later Shokhina (1937)
described and pictured six benthic species. Bening (1937)
documented 13 species from the Mertvyy Kultuk and
Kaydak. Klenova (1956) and Popov (1955) found three
recent species and plenty of reworked Cretaceous
foraminifera. Gofman (1966) documented seven species of
dead benthic foraminifera. Not one of the abovementioned
studies contained data on the quantitative distribution of
foraminifera in the Caspian Sea. There is only a short note
of Klenova (1956) that 75% of foraminiferal assemblages
consist of Rotalia beccarii (Linne).
The Aral Sea foraminifera were studied even worse than
those of the Caspian Sea. Only two species of benthic fora-
minifera are known from the work of Kiaer (1906), Berg
(1908), and Hülsen (1911). These species were documented
from a depth of 32 m and the sandy and muddy substrata
from almost freshwater of the Taldik Bay to the normal
salinity of the Aral Sea (Berg 1908).
An intensive study of taxonomy, quantitative distribution,
and ecology of live (Rose Bengal-stained) foraminifera in the
Caspian and Aral Seas and their comparison with recent
foraminifera from other basins was performed by Mayer
(1968, 1970, 1972, 1974a, b, 1976, 1979a, b, 1983a, b). A
comparison of recent and Pliocene–Quaternary foraminifera
from this region was performed by Naydina et al. (1974) and
Mayer (1975). Mayer (1979b) described 18 species from the
Caspian Sea, two of which, Hemisphaerammina sp. and
Saccamina sp., were given in open nomenclature; two,
Mi. fusca (Brady) and Tr. aguajoi (Bermudez), are well
know from other basins; the rest of the species were initially
described by Mayer. Eleven Caspian live in the Aral Sea
(Mayer 1979b).
The abundance of benthic foraminifera in the sediments of
the Southern Caspian Sea from Bahnamir to Babolsar, Iran,
was studied by Ghane et al. (2014). A total of five species of
benthic foraminifera (A. beccarii caspica Shchedrina, El.
littorale caspicus [Shokhina], Mi. fusca [Brady], Ammotium
sp., and one unidentified species) were identified in the bot-
tom sediments, and their distribution was correlated with
environmental parameters (dissolved oxygen, temperature,
pH, organic matter, calcium carbonate concentration, and
grain size).
A study of benthic foraminifera abundance in the
sediments of Southern Caspian Sea from Fereydunkenar to
Babolsar was performed by Sadough et al. (2013). A multi-
disciplinary case study from the southeastern flank of the
Caspian Sea on sea-level changes at the end of Little Ice
Age and its impacts on the avulsion of the Gorgan River
was performed by Naderi Beni et al. (2014). A study of
benthic foraminifera in the sediments of Southern Caspian
Sea was carried out (Ghane et al. 2014). The paper describes
foraminiferal species and provides a correlation of their
abundance and environmental factors enabling more infor-
mation on Caspian Sea ecosystem.
The effect of urban pollutants on the distribution of ben-
thic foraminifera in the Southern Caspian Sea was studied by
Zarghami et al. (2019). The authors recognized 11 species of
benthic foraminifera from 6 genera of 5 families. The
d
d
cosmopolitan A. beccarii caspica was common in the studied
area. The density of benthic foraminifera is significantly
correlated with seasons, the highest density being observed
in winter, and the most dense foraminifera were observed in
Babolsar stations that showed a good situation for living
there; hence, we can use these foraminifera as a bioindicator
for pollutant area.
4 1 State-of-the-Art
To the best of our knowledge, there are no publications
(except ours) on the application of benthic foraminifera to
the Ponto-Caspian Late Quaternary stratigraphy and
paleogeography.
1.3 Our Study
The taxonomy, ecology/paleoecology, paleogeography, and
biostratigraphy of Ponto-Caspian benthic foraminifera have
been carried out by the author of this book in the northwestern
(e.g., Yanko 1973, 1974a, b, c, d, e, 1975, 1982a, b, c, d;
Voskoboynikov et al. 1985; Sulimov et al. 1983; Vorobyova
and Yanko 1986), Bulgarian (Yanko 1979, 1982c; Dimitrov
et al. 1979), and Caucasian (Yanko et al. 1983; Yanko and
Gramova 1990) and across the shelf (Yanko and Troitskaya
1987) and northern exits of the Bosphorus Strait (Yanko and
Vorobyova 1991; Yanko-Hombach 2007a), the Sea of Azov
(Yanko 1982d; Yanko and Aleevskaya 1982; Gudina an
Yanko 1989; Yanko and Vorobyova 1990), Caspian Sea
(Svitoch et al. 1992, 1997; Yanko 1989, 1990), and Mediter-
ranean Sea (Yanko et al. 1994, 1998). In addition, foraminifera
from numerous Pleistocene stratotypes were studied in the
coastal zone of the Ponto-Caspian region (e.g., Yanko 1989,
1990; Yanko et al. 1990; Svitoch et al. 1992). The application
of benthic foraminifera in the reconstruction of sea-level
change and coastline migration in regard to the Great Flood
Hypotheses in the Black Sea is present in Yanko-Hombach
(2003, 2004, 2007a, b) and Yanko-Hombach et al. (2007,
2011, 2014). Lately, attention has been paid on the use of
benthic foraminifera along with other meiobenthos organisms
(nematodes, ostracods) for contouring reservoirs of methane
stored under the seabed (Yanko et al. 2017; Yanko-Hombach
et al. 2017; Shnyukov and Yanko 2014; Shnyukov an
Yanko-Hombach 2020).
Our analysis of published data developed a general list of
benthic species for the Ponto-Caspian region. This list
includes 183 low taxa (Yanko 1989): 88 species have
pictures (e.g., Tufescu 1973, 1974b), and some of them are
supported by brief (e.g., Mikhalevich 1968; Temlekov et al.
2006) or more detailed (e.g., Dolgopolskaya and Pauli 1931)
description. For other species only location and some ecolog-
ical remarks (e.g., Vlkanova 1981) are provided. These
88 species are considered in our study. From the rest of the
97 species, which do have neither pictures nor description,
only 33 species could be identified in our material. Seventy
species, e.g., Miocene Florilus boueanum (d’Orbigny) and
Nubecularia novorossica (Karrer), seemed to be reworked,
and together with other species in open nomenclature, e.g.,
Ammorginulina sp. (Baĉescu and Margineanu 1959), were
excluded from our analysis.
Altogether, 180 benthic and seven planktonic species and
subspecies are on the list (Table 3.1). Eighteen species are
absent in our material (marked by stars in the table). Thirty
low taxa belong to agglutinated foraminifera, and the rest are
calcareous. A vast majority of them are pictured, described, and
supplemented by data on biostratigraphy and paleoecology.
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2
Study Area, Material, and Methods
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the study area
known as the Ponto-Caspian, which includes the Black
Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea
(currently dried up), and connecting straits. The Black
Sea, with a maximum depth of 2212 m, is the easternmost
of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean basin and can be consid-
ered as the most isolated sea of the modern Global Ocean.
The Sea of Azov is connected to the Black Sea via the
Kerch Strait. On average, the level of the Black Sea is
7–11 cm lower than that of the Sea of Azov and 30 cm
higher than that of the Sea of Marmara. The Black Sea
exhibits the standard oceanic provinces of the continental
shelf, slope, and abyssal plain. The extensive continental
shelf accounts for 25% of the sea area; the 200-m isobath
is commonly taken as the shelf boundary of the Global
Ocean. The bottom relief is largely smooth due to the
distribution of sediment discharge from major lowland
European rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Dniester,
and the Southern Bug, that together discharge 56.8 million
tons of sediments annually.
The average bottom-water salinity of the Black Sea
(17 psu) is only half that of the Eastern (39 psu, practical
salinity units) and Western (34 psu) Mediterranean. Salin-
ity varies spatially, temporally, and with depth, in associ-
ation with freshwater discharge into the basin and the
influence of subsurface inflow from the Sea of Marmara
with salinity of ~35 psu. The maximum salinity of the Sea
of Azov is 13 psu.
The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of
water, variously classed as an isolated lake without an
outflow (i.e., an endorheic basin). It lies at the junction of
Europe and Asia, with the Caucasus Mountains to the west
and the steppes of Central Asia to the east. The Caspian
Sea, like the Black Sea, is a remnant of the ancient
Paratethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million
years ago due to tectonic uplift and falling sea level.
The Caspian Sea is divided into three distinct physical
regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The
Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf and is
very shallow, with an average depth of only 5–6 m; it
accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume. More
than 130 rivers flow into the Caspian, with the Volga
River being the largest. The Northern Caspian water is
almost fresh, becoming more brackish toward the south.
The sea is most saline off the Iranian shore, where the
watershed contributes little inflow. Currently, the mean
salinity of the Caspian is 12.8 psu on average, varying
from 1 psu near the Volga outlet to a high of 200 psu in the
Kara-Bogaz-Gol, where intense evaporation occurs.
The Aral Sea was also an endorheic lake; lying
between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it began shrinking
in the 1960s and had largely dried up by the 2010s.
Formerly it was the fourth largest lake in the world with
an area of 68,000 km2
. The shrinking of the Aral Sea has
been called “one of the planet’s worst environmental
disasters.”
In the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Kerch Strait,
sediment samples have been collected since mid-1970s
using various research vessels. In limans (marshes) and
river deltas, the samples were collected from small vessels
by hand corer or diving. As a rule, the sampling
campaigns took place in May–June. Samples for
foraminiferal analysis were obtained from multiple
organizations of the Black Sea countries. In total, approx-
imately 32,000 samples from 1500 grabs, multicorers, box
corers, 4300 gravity/piston cores, and 56 boreholes (up to
40 m in length) were investigated. The samples were
obtained in limans, lagoons, river deltas, shelf, and conti-
nental slope of the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, the Sea of
Azov, and the Caspian Sea. The total length of
investigated sediment cores reached 8000 m. Marine
research was supplemented by the study of 112 Quaternary
outcrops including stratotypes located on the Crimean and
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
V. Yanko, Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0_2
9
Kerch Peninsula, Caucasian, and northwestern coast of the
Caspian Sea.
At most marine stations, environmental (e.g., salinity,
depth, temperature, dissolved oxygen) and foraminiferal
parameters were measured. The total assemblage, includ-
ing live (stained) and dead (empty) tests of foraminifera,
was determined and expressed as the number of tests
(abundance) per 50 g of dry sediment. To identify possible
interrelations among foraminiferal characteristics and
environmental parameters, a range of statistical methods
were applied.
The inner structure of foraminiferal tests and their wall
ultrastructure were studied in 320 thin sections and
120 artificial models. All species of benthic foraminifera
were morphologically examined, taxonomically
identified, and SEM imaged. Particular attention was
paid to morphological deformities of foraminiferal tests
as indicators of environmental stress. The collections of
benthic foraminifera from the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and
Sea of Azov are stored in the Paleontological Museum of
Odessa National University, Ukraine.
The stratigraphic work follows the Russian subdivision
of the Quaternary System (Zhamoida, Stratigr Geol
Correl, 12:321–330, 2004) into the Eopleistocene
(1.8–0.8 Ma), Neopleistocene (0.8–0.01 Ma), and Holo-
cene (0.01–0.0 Ma). The resulting high-resolution stratig-
raphy and geochronology of the Late Quaternary
(Neopleistocene and Holocene) sediments are based on
the combination of bio- and ecostratigraphic criteria
supplemented by absolute dating. Biostratigraphic criteria
include precise taxonomic analysis of benthic foraminifera
to trace species evolution and to discover species
indicators for certain time intervals. Due to the shortness
of the studied time interval, the application of these criteria
is limited and so is supplemented by ecostratigraphic
criteria.
10 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods
Keywords
Black Sea · Sea of Azov · Caspian Sea · Aral Sea ·
Drillholes · Outcrops
2.1 Study Area
The study area is known as the Ponto-Caspian, which
includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea,
the Aral Sea (currently dried up), and connecting straits
(Fig. 2.1).
The Black Sea is the easternmost of the seas of the Atlan-
tic Ocean basin. Considering the ratio of the sea volume to
the summary area of the cross sections of all its straits (which
is 0.04 km2
for the Bosphorus and 0.02 km2
for the Kerch
Strait) as a measure of isolation of a sea basin, then the Black
Sea can be considered the most isolated sea of the modern
Global Ocean (Zubov 1956). Its maximum length (along 42
290
N lat) and width are 1148 km and 611 km, respectively.
Its surface area (excluding estuaries, such as the Dnieper-Bug
liman—liman is a local term for ancient estuaries in the Black
Sea and Sea of Azov) and its volume are about 416,790 km2
and 535,430 km3
, respectively, and the maximum depth is
2212 m (Ivanov and Belokopytov 2013). The Sea of Azov is
connected to the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait and has an
area of 39,000 km2
and a volume of 290 km3
. The maximum
length, width, and depth of the Sea of Azov are 360 km,
180 km, and 14 m, respectively. On average, the level of the
Black Sea is 7–11 cm lower than that of the Sea of Azov and
30 cm higher than that of the Sea of Marmara.
The details and taphonomic conditions of the Black Sea
are unusual. It is the world’s largest anoxic (oxygen-free)
marine basin. Its strongly stratified water column possesses
(1) a thin, well-oxygenated surface layer (20–30 m) with low
salinity and warm temperatures, (2) a low-oxygen (suboxic)
transition layer (30–150 m), and (3) a thick bottom layer of
colder, denser, and more saline water lacking oxygen but
high in sulfides.
The Black Sea lies within the Anatolian sector of the
Alpine-Himalayan orogenic system, located between the
Eurasian plate to the north and the African-Arabian plates
to the south. Global plate models (DeMets et al. 1990)
and recent space geodetic measurements (Smith et al. 1994;
Reilinger et al. 1997) indicate that, in the surrounding region,
the northward-moving African and Arabian plates are collid-
ing with the Eurasian plate. From this collision, the Anatolian
block is moving westward with a rotation pole located
approximately to the north of the Sinai Peninsula (Tari et al.
2000). The northward movement of the Arabian plate and
westward escape of the Anatolian block along the North and
East Anatolian faults have been accompanied by several
episodes of extension and shortening since the Permian
(Yilmaz 1997; Robertson et al. 2004), as can be seen in
seismic-reflection data (McKenzie 1972; McClusky et al.
2000).
The Black Sea exhibits the standard oceanic provinces of
the continental shelf, slope, and abyssal plain (Fig. 2.2).
The extensive continental shelf accounts for 25% of the
sea area; the 200-m isobath is commonly taken as the shelf
boundary of the Global Ocean. The northwestern shelf
extends 220 km outward and occupies 16% of the sea area
(68,390 km2
) and 0.7% of the water volume (3555 km3
)
between the Chersonesus and Kaliakra capes. In the flattened
and gently sloping part of the shelf adjacent to the shore,
depths are 30–40 m, and the bottom slope is 1–2
. Its steep-
ness increases toward the shelf break to 10–12
. Against the
flat plain of the shelf, several large, shallow paleo-river
valleys are visible in Fig. 2.2, separated by low underwater
hills (Ivanov and Belokopytov 2013). The bottom relief is
largely smooth due to the distribution of sediment discharge
provided by major lowland European rivers, such as the
Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, and Southern Bug, that together
discharge 56.8 million tons of sediments annually (Panin and
Jipa 2002). No known expressions of active tectonic
movements have influenced the ancient shoreline positions
and deposition of sediments in any appreciable way.
2.1 Study Area 11
Fig. 2.1 The Ponto-Caspian. Manych Outlet (currently Manych Depression in red) presumably connected the Caspian and Black Seas at 18 ka
BP to 10 ka BP
The other, less extensive shelf areas of the Black Sea
include the coastal zone of Bulgaria and western Turkey
from Cape Kaliakra to the city of Ereğli (shelf width up to
50 km), the Kerch–Taman shelf (shelf width up to 50 km),
the central Anatolian coast from Cape Kerempe to the city of
Giresun (shelf width up to 35 km), the southern Crimean
coast between capes Chersonesus and Ai-Todor (shelf width
up to 30 km), and the Gudauta Bank in the vicinity of
Ochamchira town (shelf width up 20 km) (Ivanov and
Belokopytov 2013).
Narrow shelves with widths of several kilometers are
located along the Caucasian and Anatolian coasts, as well as
along the southern Crimean coast from Yalta to Cape
Meganom. Their slopes are considerably steeper compared to
the broader shelves, ranging from 5–6
to 30
. The shelf break
lies at depths from 100 to 200 m, and the slope is 1–2
. The
depth of the shelf break is close to 100 m, compared to areas
with broader shelves where the break can exceed 200 m.
The predominantly flat bottom of the Sea of Azov
descends gradually to the depression at its center. At the
bottom, there are a few positive relief forms, the largest of
them being the Pischana Bank. The continental slope
descends down to 1600–1900 m of water depth with a con-
siderable gradient from 11
to 13
, sometimes reaching 38
in the regions along the southern Crimean and Turkish coasts.
The surface of the continental slope is complicated with
blocks of the Earth’s crust that often give it a graduated
profile, revealing underwater canyons of different origins.
They can begin in the coastal zone at depths of 10–15 m
and extend as deep as 1600 m. These canyons are the most
important route for the transfer of sedimentary material from
the coast to the abyssal depression of the Black Sea (Fig. 2.2).
In the deepest part of the canyons, at depths of 1600–1900 m,
sedimentary material forms extensive cones. Individual cones
can coalesce to form the continental subslope. Thus, the
morphogenesis of the slope is directly linked to selective
erosion and denudation of rocks with different physical and
mechanical properties. Erosive and denudation activities in
the canyons caused the emergence of huge underwater
amphitheaters forming deepwater fans and plumes of terrige-
nous sediments on the footslope.
The abyssal plain is bounded by the 2000-m isobaths
and occupies about 35% of the total sea area. It is a relatively
flat, accumulative plain with a slight slope to the south. The
bottom of the abyssal basin is characterized by hilly relief;
slope angles vary from 0
to 1
. According to echo-sounding
surveys, significantly large features of submarine relief are
absent (Fig. 2.2). Deposits covering the abyssal plain form
¼
11 material-genetic types. Six types are shallow, and five are
deep water. Between all types of deposits, there is a continu-
ous transfer, conditioned by gradual change in grain size and
composition. The mean rate of accumulation at the bottom of
the central abyssal depression is 30–40 mm/kyr.
12 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods
Fig. 2.2 Digital high-resolution map of relief. Modified after Bagrov paleovalleys. Yellow cylinders gas seeps. The map was compiled
et al. 2012. 1–24 canyons: (1) Dunaisky, (2) Dniestrovsky,
(3) Peleokalanchaksky, (4) Donuslavsky, (5) Al’minsky, (6) Kachinsy,
(7) Forossky, (8) Yaltinsky, (9) Khapkhal’sky, (10) Meganomsky,
(11) Kubansky, (12) Novorossiysky, (13) Tuapsinsky, (14) Sochinsky,
(15) Sukhumsky, (16) Rioniisky, (17) Batumsky, (18) Trabzonsky,
(19) Ordossky, (20) Samsunsky, (21) Kysyl-Irmansky,
(22) Sakar’iaksky, (23) Bosphorsky, and (24) Burgazsky. Red, blue,
and yellow triangles ¼ mud volcanoes reliably detected, discovered
based on geophysical data, and expected, respectively. Blue lines river
¼
based on results of digitizing bathymetric maps of different scales (1:
50,000, 1:100,000, 1:200,000, 1:500,000, 1:1,125,000) produced by
Gosgidrografiya USSR. The Crimean shelf and slope, as well as the
southern part of the northwestern shelf and slope, were adjusted based
on the results of our own sonar and hydroacoustic soundings obtained
during marine expeditions on R/Vs Kiev, Professor Vodyanitsky,
Mikhail Lomonosov, Ichthyander, and Vernadsky. Reproduced with
permission from the Research Center of Sustainable Development,
Ukraine. (From Yanko-Hombach et al. 2017, their Fig. 16.14)
Today, the Bosphorus Strait (Figs. 2.1 and 2.2) is the only
passage for exchange of water and organisms between the
Black Sea and Sea of Marmara. This zigzagging strait is
about 35 km in length, 0.7–3.5 km in width, and 35.8 m
deep, on average, with a few elongate potholes (about 110 m
in depth each) on the bottom. The strait possesses two sills,
one in the north at a water depth of 59 m and one in the south
at a water depth of 34 m, each located about 3 km from the
corresponding entrance to the strait. The two directions of
water flow within the strait overlap each other: the northward
underflow (inflow) from the Sea of Marmara has an average
salinity of 38 psu and a velocity of 5–15 cm/s, and the
southward overflow (outflow) from the Black Sea has an
average salinity of 18 psu and a velocity of 10–30 cm/s.
Due to the sills, the interface between the two flow directions
rises from 50 m at the northern end to 20 m at the
southern end. The underflow is initiated by the difference in
water density between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara;
the pressure gradient pushes against the Black Sea and
powers the underflow. The outflow is initiated by two main
factors: (1) the 30-cm elevation of the Black Sea surface
above that of the Sea of Marmara, which, in turn, is
5–27 cm above the level of the northern Aegean Sea and
(2) the positive balance of the Black Sea, where precipitation
(575 km3
/year) exceeds evaporation (350 km3
/year), produc-
ing a discharge of about 600 km3
of brackish water annually
(Yanko-Hombach 2007a).
2.2 Material and Methods 13
The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea with the Sea of
Azov (Figs. 2.1 and 2.2) and is 45 km long, 4.5 km wide, and
up to 6 m deep. The shallowness of the strait results in
reduced water exchange between the two basins, which is
five to ten times smaller than that of the Bosphorus.
The Black Sea average bottom water salinity (17 psu) is
only half that of the Eastern (39 psu) and Western (34 psu)
Mediterranean. The use of “psu” (practical salinity units)
instead of the former ‰ is explained in Yanko-Hombach
et al. (2013). Salinity varies spatially, temporally, and with
depth, in association with freshwater discharge into the basin
and the influence of subsurface inflow from the Sea of
Marmara with salinity of ~35 psu. Surface salinity ranges
from 1 to 3 psu in the Danube delta to 26.2 psu in the
Bosphorus outlet area. The maximum salinity of the Sea of
Azov is 13 psu.
The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of
water, variously classed as an isolated lake without an out-
flow (i.e., an endorheic basin). It lies at the junction of Europe
and Asia, with the Caucasus Mountains to the west and the
steppes of Central Asia to the east. The sea is bordered by
Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the
south, Turkmenistan to the southeast, and Kazakhstan to the
northeast. The Caspian Sea, like the Black Sea, is a remnant
of the ancient Paratethys Sea. Thus, the Caspian Sea is
underlain by oceanic basalt and not by continental granitic
rock. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to
tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level.
The Caspian Sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2
(excluding the Gara-Bogaz-Gol lagoon) and a volume of
78,200 km3
. The lake has a north–south orientation and
consists of two deep basins that occupy its central and south-
ern areas leading to both spatial and depth differences in
temperature, salinity, and ecology. The Caspian Sea spreads
out over nearly 1200 km from north to south, with an average
width of 320 km. With associated wetlands, it covers a region
of around 386,400 km2
and its surface is about 27 m below
sea level.
The Caspian Sea is divided into three distinct physical
regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The
northern–middle boundary is the Mangyshlak Threshold,
which runs through Chechen Island and Cape Tiub-Karagan.
The middle–southern boundary is the Apsheron Threshold, a
sill of tectonic origin between the Eurasian continent and an
oceanic remnant that runs through Zhiloi Island and Cape
Kuuli. Differences among the three regions are dramatic. The
Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf and is very
shallow, with an average depth of only 5–6 m; it accounts for
less than 1% of the total water volume. The Northern Caspian
freezes in the winter, and in the coldest winters, ice forms in
the south as well. The sea floor deepens toward the Middle
Caspian, where the average depth is 190 m. The Southern
Caspian is the deepest, with oceanic depths of over 1000 m.
The Middle and Southern Caspian account for 33% and 66%
of the total water volume, respectively.
More than 130 rivers flow into the Caspian, with the
Volga River being the largest. The Northern Caspian water
is almost fresh, becoming more brackish toward the south.
The sea is most saline off the Iranian shore, where the
watershed contributes little inflow. Currently, the mean salin-
ity of the Caspian is 12.8 psu on average, varying from 1 psu
near the Volga outlet to a high of 200 psu in the Kara-Bogaz-
Gol, where intense evaporation occurs. In the open sea, the
vertical distribution of salinity is markedly uniform; from the
surface to the bottom it increases by only 0.1–0.2 psu.
Caspian waters differ chemically from typical ocean waters
and resembles other evaporative lake waters in having higher
concentrations of calcium and magnesium cations, and sul-
fate and carbonate cations, and lower chloride content.
The Aral Sea was also an endorheic lake; lying between
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan it began shrinking in the 1960s
and had largely dried up by the 2010s. Formerly it was the
fourth largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2
.
The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called “one of the
planet’s worst environmental disasters” (Daily Telegraph
2010). The region’s once-prosperous fishing industry has
been devastated, bringing unemployment and economic
hardship. The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with
consequential serious public health problems. UNESCO
added the historical documents concerning the collapse of
the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a unique
resource to study this “environmental tragedy.”
2.2 Material and Methods
In the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Kerch Strait and the
Caspian Sea sediment samples have been collected since the
mid-1970s using various research vessels, including the R/V
Professor, R/V Akademik, R/V Antares, R/V Vladimir Parshin,
and R/V Mare Nigrum. In limans (marshes) and river deltas, the
samples were collected from small vessels by hand corer and/or
diving. As a rule, the sampling campaigns took place in May–
June (e.g., Yanko 1979, 1989, 1990; Yanko and Troitskaya
1987; Yanko and Gramova 1990; Yanko-Hombach 2007a;
Yanko-Hombach et al. 2014, 2017; Yanko et al. 2019; Yanko
and Kondariuk 2020). Samples for foraminiferal analysis were
obtained from multiple organizations (e.g., Siberian Branch of
the USSR Academy of Sciences; Southern Branch of the Insti-
tute of Oceanology, USSR Academy of Sciences; Institute of
Oceanology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences;
Yuzhmorgeologiya, GeoEcoMar; Odessa I.I. Mechnikov
National University; Prichernomor DGRP M.V. Lmonosov
Moscow State University and some others with which the
author cooperated on the contractual and/or scientific basis). In
this regard, the following scientists, V. M. Voskoboynikov,
d
A. Yu. Glebov, V. I. Dmitrienko, Ya A. Izmailov, G. I.
Karmishina, V. A. Karpov, E. G. Konnikov, E. M. Mayer,
I. V. Pogrebnyak, E. F. Shnyukov, A. A. Svitoch, G. G.
Tkachenko, T. S. Troitskaya, and K. M. Shimkus, must be
mentioned, with deep gratitude to all. The location maps of the
studied materials are provided in Yanko (1989, 1990) an
Yanko-Hombach et al. (2014, 2017), as well as in Figs. 2.3
and 2.4.
14 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods
At the majority of the sampling stations, salinity, temper-
ature, pH, and DO of bottom water were taken using the
Neil Brown Instrument Systems (CTD) with a General
Oceanic rosette equipped with 6–11 Niskin bottles and elec-
tronic sensors, as described in Yanko et al. (1998) and
Yanko-Hombach et al. (2017). In addition, in some areas
(e.g., Romanian shelf), additional hydrological parameters
were measured: conductivity (U), transparency (Tr), oxygen
saturation index (SI), and oxygen-reduction potential
(Eh) later normalized to standard pH ¼ 7 (for building the
Purbae diagram). Transparency was measured by Secchi
disk. Although salinity based on conductivity measurements
are now considered to be unitless (e.g., https://unesdoc.
unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000065031), salinity data reported
in this book were taken by a variety of methods, including
conductivity and refractometry, and were originally reported
as ‰ or psu. For readers who may be unfamiliar with recent
recommendations, the author will use psu when reporting or
discussing salinity. Concentrations of phosphates (РО4
3
)
and dissolved silica (SiO2) in the water column were calcu-
lated with the help of the molybdovanadate method by acid
persulfate digestion (HASH equipment); the concentration
of CaCO3 was measured by titration. For the calculation
of total carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N), the ground
samples from the superficial (0–1 cm) sediment layer col-
lected by a multicorer were analyzed using a CNS elemental
analyzer Carlo Erba NA 1500 and gas chromatography.
Organic carbon (Corg) was calculated after threefold removal
of inorganic carbon. The analyses were performed at the
Institute of Biochemistry and Marine Chemistry of the
Hamburg University in Germany (Yanko-Hombach et al.
2017).
Fig. 2.3 Sketch of geological materials obtained in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and their coasts and studied by foraminiferal analysis
The grain-size analysis of the superficial (0–2 cm) sedi-
ment layer was performed by sieving and elutriation methods
described in Logvinenko and Sergeeva (1986). Based on the
results, the median diameter (Md) and coefficient of sorting
56 boreholes (up to 40 m in length) were investigated. It
should be noted that the method of sampling is very impor-
tant. Some authors recommend not to use grabs for sampling
because “grab samplers create a strong bowwave when they
touch the ground. Furthermore, grabs may only scrape the
surface, distort the structure of the underlying sediments, and
often do not close accurately. A large part of the sample is
washed out when the grab is hoisted through the water
(So) were calculated for each sample. Cores were split and
the working half was examined in the uppermost 2 cm of
each 10-cm interval of the sediment column. Some of the
gravity/piston cores were examined in 2-cm intervals (e.g.,
Core 1136 in Yanko-Hombach 2007a, here Fig. 8) to provide
high-resolution bio- and ecostratigraphy.
2.2 Material and Methods 15
Fig. 2.4 Sketch of geological
materials obtained in the Caspian
Sea and its coast and studied by
foraminiferal analysis
In total, approximately 32,000 samples from 1500 grabs,
multicorers, box corers, 4300 gravity/piston cores, and
column, and an intact sediment surface is rarely preserved”
(Schönfeld et al. 2012, 4). This is not always correct and
cannot be recommended without exceptions. The yield of a
sample very much depends on the grab construction, service-
ability of the equipment, and the experience of the working
team. In our case, all samples retained their undisturbed
structure and were covered (in the delta front and partially
in the prodelta) by an undisturbed thin (1 cm) layer of
semiliquid and finely dispersed clayey material. For example,
comparison of foraminiferal results in grab and multicorer
samples recovered from the Romanian shelf (see Sect. 4.1.5)
demonstrated similarity in their taxonomic composition.
Moreover, grab samples contained extremely fragile thin-
walled tests of La. vulgaris and Et. deplanata, which were
absent in the multicorer samples. Their absence can be
explained by the much smaller amount of sediment material
in the multicorer samples (compared to the grab samples)
available for the study. The amount of sediment is crucially
important for basins such as the Black Sea, where
foraminiferal faunas are greatly impoverished compared to
basins with normal oceanic salinity. There are only 123 living
species in the Black Sea, while in the neighboring Mediterra-
nean Sea, 580 species of foraminifera have been identified
(Cimerman and Langer 1991; Langer 2008). For this reason,
when possible we preferred to use grab samples for
foraminiferal analysis to obtain larger samples and therefore
more foraminiferal specimens.
16 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods
The samples were obtained in limans, lagoons, river
deltas, shelf, and continental slope of the Black Sea, the
Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov, and the Caspian Sea. The
total length of investigated sediment cores reached 8000 m.
Marine research was supplemented by the study of 112 Qua-
ternary outcrops including stratotypes located on the Crimean
and Kerch Peninsula (e.g., Yanko et al. 1990) and Caucasian
(Yanko and Gramova 1990) and northwestern coast of the
Caspian Sea (e.g., Svitoch et al. 1992).
At most marine stations, the total assemblage, including
live (stained) and dead (empty) tests of foraminifera, was
determined and expressed as the number of tests (abundance)
per 50 g of dry sediment as described in Yanko and Troitskaya
(1987), Yanko et al. (1998), and Yanko-Hombach et al.
(2017). For foraminiferal analysis, the sediment samples
were collected from the superficial (0–2 cm) undisturbed sedi-
ment column. Sediments were soaked in rose Bengal buffered
with seawater for 48 h and, after that, washed onboard by
seawater through a 63-μm sieve, dried, packed in special
containers, and transferred to the laboratory. Samples obtained
by a multicorer were stored in 4% formalin solution buffered
with seawater in a proportion of 3:1 and 20 g of Na2B4O7 per
liter and transferred to the laboratory where they were treated
in a manner similar to the grab samples.
We report total assemblage because (1) the scarcity of
living specimens did not allow a relevant statistical study of
their distribution, (2) the presence of living specimens among
all identified species indicated that they likely live in the
study area and therefore their empty tests are autochthonous,
and (3) the total assemblage better characterizes the seasonal
population dynamics (Debenay et al. 2001). Large samples
were randomly split with a splitter into subsamples. Then
they were soaked and washed in distilled water and passed
through a 63-m mesh sieve. Live foraminifera were studied in
wet samples equivalent to 50 g of dry sediment mass. When-
ever possible, at least 300 specimens were picked by hand
under a binocular microscope. In samples with low numbers
of specimens, all tests encountered were picked. Broken
foraminiferal tests, fragments, and old tests (recrystallized,
worn down, filled with sediments) were considered to be
reworked and excluded from the analysis.
Fossil foraminifera were studied in samples that were
dried at room temperature to avoid destruction of
agglutinated specimens. Dried samples were split with a
microsplitter to avoid sample bias; about 300 fossil forami-
nifera were picked by hand (flotation in CCl4 was sometimes
used) and counted for statistical analyses. The total numbers
of foraminifera (abundance) were calculated in dry samples
of 50 g. For each species in each sample, the relative abun-
dance (C) and species occurrence (SO) were calculated and
expressed as a percentage.
A lithological analysis of the sediments from outcrops and
drillings was often supplemented by determination of Corg,
CaCO3, etc. as described in Yanko et al. (1998) and Yanko-
Hombach et al. (2017). Geomechanical properties (e.g., den-
sity, bulk density, water content or moisture) and sediment
structures were evaluated as described in Voskoboynikov
et al. (1985) and Konikov (1992, 2007). Conventional radio-
carbon dating and other methods of absolute geochronology
(e.g., 230
Th/U) of the sediments and mollusk shells were
performed at various Russian (e.g., Dodonov et al. 2000;
Arslanov et al. 2002) and Ukrainian (e.g., Semenenko and
Kovalyukh 1973). A list of 579 radiocarbon datings
are available in appendices 1 and 2 in Yanko-Hombach
(2007b).
The inner structure of foraminiferal tests and their wall
ultrastructure were studied in 320 thin sections and 120 artifi-
cial models. All species of benthic foraminifera were mor-
phologically examined, taxonomically identified, and SEM
imaged. A cross section and models of foraminiferal tests
were performed for many species of Elphidium and some
other taxa to define their taxonomic position as described in
Hansen and Lykke-Andersen (1976).
According to their abundance, foraminifera were divided
into dominant (50% of a given assemblage) and accessory
species. According to their ecological preferences, foraminif-
era were divided into oligohaline (1–5 psu), strictoeuryhaline
(11–26 psu), polyhaline (18–26 psu), euryhaline (1–26 psu),
shallow-dwelling (0–30 m), relatively deep-dwelling
(31–70 m), and deep-dwelling (71–220 m) species (Yanko
and Troitskaya 1987; Yanko 1989, 1990).
2.3 Statistical Treatment 17
Particular attention was paid to morphological deformities
of foraminiferal tests as indicators of environmental stress. In
fossil foraminiferal tests they have been noted by researchers
since the last century (e.g., Carpenter 1856; Rhumbler 1911;
Bogdanowicz 1952, 1960, 1971; Pflum and Frerichs 1976).
In recent years, reports of deformities have become increas-
ingly more common. Deformities have been linked to a
number of environmental factors, such as (1) changes in
temperature and reduced or elevated salinity, which also
affects the size of foraminifera; (2) the lack or overabundance
of food, which causes aberrant growth and affects the size of
foraminifera; (3) the type of substrate, which affects the
outline and shape of foraminiferal tests; (4) low dissolved
oxygen content, which may create dwarfed, thin-walled, less
ornamented and aberrant forms; (5) insufficient light, which
may affect the size of foraminifera; (6) and pollution of
marine environment (Yanko et al. 1999). The percentage of
deformed foraminifera has been reported to increase dramat-
ically in polluted areas (e.g., Lidz 1965) where foraminifera
display a wide variety of deformities, including extreme
compression, double apertures, twisted coiling, aberrant
chamber shape, and protuberances. Bresler and Yanko
(1995), using sulfaflavine fluorescence and chlortetracycline
fluorescence, distinguished morphological deformities
caused by mechanical damage from those caused by patho-
logical morphogenesis.
Noted that the UNESCO Practical Salinity Scale of 1978
(PSS78) is recommended for use in preference to parts per
thousand (‰). The PSS defines salinity in terms of a conduc-
tivity ratio and so is dimensionless. On the PSS, normal-
marine salinity is generally in the range 30–40, while brack-
ish seas/waters have salinity in the range 0.5–12. Approxi-
mately equivalent values expressed in ppt are 30–50‰ (open
sea) and 0.5–30‰ (brackish sea) (Mudie et al. 2011). We use
psu (practical salinity unit) in this document.
The collections of benthic foraminifera from the Black
Sea, Caspian Sea, and Sea of Azov are stored in the Paleon-
tological Museum of Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National Uni-
versity, Ukraine.
2.3 Statistical Treatment
To identify possible interrelations between foraminiferal
characteristics and environmental parameters, cluster, corre-
lation, factor, and multidimensional scaling analyses were
applied using the “Statistica 10” package. For Q-mode cluster
analysis, Ward’s method was used to optimize the minimum
variance within clusters. Pearson’s correlation coefficient
was used as a measure of similarity. Factor analysis of hydro-
logical parameters was applied using the method of principal
components followed by the varimax orthogonal-rotation
procedure (varimax normalized). Correlations between
parameters were considered as significant at p  0.05 and
95% confidence limits.
For fossil assemblages, the residue obtained by CCl4
flotation was weighed; a portion of 0.02 g was taken for the
analysis where the number of foraminiferal specimens of
each species ( f ) was calculated using the equation f ¼ kn
where n ¼ number of specimens for each low taxon in 0.02-g
residue, g ¼ weight of the total residue, and k ¼ g/0.02. An
11-key medical counter was used to speed up the count which
is especially convenient with low taxonomic diversity. For
live (Bengal Rose-stained) foraminifera that have usually
much lower quantity, quartering was not usually used, and
all live specimens were counted.
The total number of foraminifera (F) in the sample was
calculated using quotation F ¼ f1 + f2 +. . . .fn. The concen-
tration (c) of each species per sample was calculated using the
equation:
c ¼ f  100%
F
The average concentration (C) of each lower taxon per
area/stratigraphic unit, which defines a role of the species in
the assemblage, was calculated using the following:
C ¼
c1 þ c2 þ c3 . . . þ cn
N
or C ¼ F1
 100
F
where N is the number of samples.
The spatial occurrence (O) of a given species is calculated
as a percentage from N in a given area/stratigraphic unit
equivalent to 100%. Based on C and O, all species are
divided into dominant and accessory ones. The dominant
species with the highest C forms the core of an assemblage.
Accessory species define its variability. If O  50%, the
species are considered as widely distributed, 49–10% as
often occurring, 9–1% as rare, and  1% as single. If any
species, independently from its quantity, occurs in the major-
ity of samples, such a species is considered to be characteris-
tic. Even if such species do not occur in high concentrations
in assemblages, they can be still species indicators of a
certain environment.
For the evaluation of sedimentation rate and taphonomic
considerations, the ratio between live and dead specimens
was calculated using the following equations:
P ¼
F1
Fl þ Fd

100% e ¼
f 1,2 . . . nl
f 1,2 . . . nd
where Fl and is the total number of live and dead specimens
of all species, respectively, P is the ratio between live and
total specimens, and e is the proportion of live to dead
specimens of all species for a given sample. Coefficient
P indicates the sedimentation rate; a lower P indicates slower
sedimentation (Phleger 1960). Coefficient e characterizes
taphonomic conditions, with the lower e indicating better
taphonomic conditions for a given species.
Þ
Þ
18 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods
An influence of environmental factors on foraminifera is
estimated using the ratio between megalospheric and
microspheric (d) as well as between juvenile and adult (z)
specimens of a given species using equations:
d ¼
f meg
f mic
z ¼
f
f ad1
If d  1 and z  1 or ¼ 0, the life conditions likely were not
favorable and a species lived without reproduction. This is
based on an assumption that, in extreme conditions, any
organism tries to devote its energy to protecting itself and,
therefore, prefers mitosis to meiosis (Effrussi and Farber
1975).
To compare assemblages, the method of Cabioch (1979)
was implemented using quotations:
K ¼
1
ffiffiffi
2
p
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
x  a
x
 2
r
þ
y  a
y
 2
θ ¼ Arctg
x y  a
ð
y x  a
ð
where x and y are the number of species in compared
assemblages, a is the number of common species, K is the
coefficient of similarity, and θ is the coefficient of enrich-
ment. If K  0.707, the compared faunas are completely
different; the smaller K is, the more similar are the faunas:
weak similarity (K ¼ 0.707–0.507), medium similarity
(K ¼ 0.506–0.207), and strong similarity (K  0.207). If
K ¼ 0, the assemblages are identical. For θ ¼ 60
, the
fauna is strongly enriched with species; if θ ¼ 30
, the
fauna is impoverished, and intermediate numbers show
exchange of one fauna by another.
The methods described enabled us to establish the lateral
rows of live foraminifera (Yanko 1990) that reflect migration
succession of foraminiferal assemblages (MSFA) after change-
able environmental conditions. Fossil analogues of the MSFA,
expressed as an alternation of foraminiferal assemblages and
their ecological characteristics, provide reliable background for
the high-resolution bio- and ecostratigraphy and paleoenvir-
onmental reconstructions in an area under study.
2.4 Stratigraphic Techniques
The stratigraphic work follows the Russian subdivision of the
Quaternary System (Zhamoida 2004) into the Eopleistocene
(1.8–0.8 Ma), Neopleistocene (0.8–0.01 Ma), and Holocene
(0.01–0.0 Ma). The resulting high-resolution stratigraphy and
geochronology of the Late Quaternary (Neopleistocene and
Holocene) sediments are based on the combination of bio-
and ecostratigraphic criteria supplemented by absolute dat-
ing. Biostratigraphic criterion includes precise taxonomic
analysis of benthic foraminifera to trace species evolution
and to discover species indicators for certain time intervals.
Due to the shortness of the studied time interval, the applica-
tion of this criterion is limited and so is supplemented by
ecostratigraphic criteria. Ecostratigraphy is the biostrati-
graphic application of ecological and paleoecological
principles to develop an understanding of the global
external-forcing agents that drive ecological change. The
ecostratigraphy of the Black Sea addresses biotic responses
to isolation from and connection to the neighboring Sea of
Marmara and Caspian Sea and to related sea-level changes
and salinity oscillations. This ecostratigraphic technique is
based largely on the alternation of foraminiferal assemblages
and their ecological characteristics in geological sections,
supported by 14
C and palynological assays. An increase in
the number of Mediterranean immigrants, especially
strictoeuryhaline and polyhaline species, in sediment
sequences indicates an increase of Mediterranean influence
and salinity and vice versa. The complete replacement of
Mediterranean immigrants by oligohaline Caspian species
shows the separation between the Black Sea and Mediterra-
nean, followed by the desalination of the Black Sea. This
conclusion is based on a generally accepted observation, fully
supported by our ecological study (Yanko 1989, 1990), that
foraminifera are not well adapted to freshwater environments
(Sen Gupta 1999).
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3
Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera
Abstract
The higher taxonomic classifications proposed by Saidova
(O sovremennom sostoyanii sistemy nadvidovykh
taksonov kaynozoyskikh bentosnykh foraminifer (On the
current state of the system of supraspecific taxa of
Cenozoic benthic foraminifers). AN SSSR, Moscow,
720 pp (in Russian), 1981), Mikhalevich (Micropaleontol-
ogy 59:493–527, 2013), and Pawlowski et al. (Mar
Micropaleontol 100:1–10, 2013), in conjunction with
classifications suggested by the World Register of Marine
Species (WoRMS), were used to provide an authoritative
and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms,
including information on synonymy. Unfortunately, in
many cases the WoRMS classifications did not fit with
the author’s concept for the higher classification of the
Ponto-Caspian Quaternary foraminifera; among the
editors of WoRMS, there is no one with specific expertise
in the fauna of this unique geographic region. As a conse-
quence of the specific geographic position and its long
semi- or complete isolation from the World Ocean, the
Ponto-Caspian biota, including foraminifera, is quite spe-
cific. Also, purely taxonomic work was not the main goal
of this investigation of the Ponto-Caspian Quaternary
foraminifera. This book focuses on applied components
enabling the use of foraminifera for stratigraphy and
paleogeographic reconstructions, as well as for environ-
mental monitoring.
A polytypic concept of species recognizes that any
species is composed of many allopatric populations that
can differ to a certain degree from each other. If
individuals from these populations differ in diagnostic
morphological characteristics and are geographically and
temporally isolated, they can be considered as subspecies.
The identification of species is based on the set of criteria
for zoological systematics developed by Mayr et al.
(Metody i printsipy zoologicheskoy sistematiki (Methods
and principles of zoological systematic). Izd-vo insstr.lit.,
Moscow, 49 pp (in Russian), 1953) and Mayr (Printsipy
zoologicheskoy sistematiki (Principles of zoological sys-
tematic). Mir, Moscow, 454 pp (in Russian), 1971) for the
entire fauna as a whole and refined by Fursenko (Vvedenie
v izuchenie foraminifer (Introduction to the study of fora-
minifera). Trudy Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki 391.
Nauka, Novosibirsk, 242 pp (in Russian), 1978) for fora-
minifera. His concept is based on the assumption that only
combinations of morphological (or comparative morpho-
logical), geographical, ecological, geochronological, and
discriminative criteria can provide correct identification of
a species.
All taxa of the Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto-
Caspian are classified as belonging to Kingdom
Protoctista, Class Foraminifera d’Orbigny, 1826. The
classification of the Quaternary foraminifera of the
Ponto-Caspian includes 180 and 7 lower taxa of benthic
and planktonic foraminifera, respectively. Nineteen
species are given in open nomenclature. Among benthic
foraminifera, 30 are agglutinated; the remaining 150 lower
taxa are characterized by calcium carbonate tests.
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
V. Yanko, Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0_3
21
Keywords
Phenetic species concept · Criteria for species identifica-
tion · Principles of taxonomic classification
3.1 General Remarks
Application of foraminifera to high-resolution stratigraphy
and paleoenvironmental reconstructions requires precise tax-
onomic identification of lower taxa and their further integra-
tion into the general system of foraminifera. As for today,
foraminiferal taxonomy relies on a phenetic species concept
(e.g., Loeblich and Tappan 1988) that classifies foraminifera
by their morphological similarities, which can be also caused
by environmental variations. As a consequence, it is often
difficult to make a decision whether morphological variations
are genotypic or ecophenotypic. Classifying foraminifera by
morphological criteria may lead to appearance of species
with wide geographic and stratigraphic distribution, e.g.,
Ammonia beccarii described by Linnaeus (1758). Another
concept is needed to resolve taxonomic problems. Molecular
concepts (e.g., Holzmann 2000) opens new perspectives for
the taxonomy of recent foraminifera because molecular sys-
tematics enables relatively clear definitions of existing taxa
and investigation of hidden genetic subdivisions (sibling
species). The main disadvantage of this concept is its appli-
cability to living organisms only, as they comprise only a
small proportion of the total number of known species. Thus,
molecular concepts are not useful for stratigraphers who are
dealing largely with fossil species that often have no
analogues among recent foraminifera. For the Quaternary,
the molecular classification is useful, though a variety of
limitations must be recognized. At the current stages of
development, no sufficient data bank is yet available, some
groups are very resistant to genomic techniques, and the wide
distributions of cryptobiotic propagules result in the appear-
ance of sequences far outside their viable ranges. Thus,
morphological criteria for identification remain essential
both in traditional studies and for comparisons with environ-
mental applications of molecular classifications.
22 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera
3.2 Principles of Taxonomic Classification
The author has carefully analyzed the higher taxonomic
classifications suggested by Saidova (1981), Mikhalevich
(2013), and Pawlowski et al. (2013) and have tried to adopt
those schemes to classifications suggested by the World
Registered Marine Species (WoRMS) (WoRMS Editorial
Board 2021), the aim of which is to provide an authoritative
and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms,
including information on synonymy. Unfortunately, in
many cases the WoRMS classifications did not fit with the
author’s concept for a higher classification of the Ponto-
Caspian Quaternary foraminifera. As a consequence of the
specific geographic position of the Ponto-Caspian and its
long semi- or complete isolation from the World Ocean, its
biota, including foraminifera, is quite specific. Unfortunately,
among the editors of WoRMS, there is no one with specific
expertise in the fauna of the unique Ponto-Caspian geo-
graphic region (see map “Our editors around the world” at
http://www.marinespecies.org/about.php). Also, purely taxo-
nomic work was not the main goal of this investigation of the
Ponto-Caspian Quaternary foraminifera. This book focuses
on applied components enabling use of foraminifera for
stratigraphy and paleogeographic reconstructions (Chap. 6),
as well as for environmental monitoring (Chap. 7).
The basic taxonomic unit of the system for any group of
organisms is the “species.” Therefore, the primary task of a
researcher dealing with issues of taxonomy is the accurate
understanding of the species characteristics and the establish-
ment of criteria to consistently identify individuals at all
stages of ontogeny. This work adopts a polytypic concept
of the species, that is, that any species is composed of many
allopatric populations that can differ to a certain degree from
each other. If individuals from these populations differ in
diagnostic morphological characteristics and are geographi-
cally and temporally isolated, they are considered as subspe-
cies. The identification of species is based on the set of
criteria for zoological systematics developed by Mayr et al.
(1956) and Mayr (1971) for the entire fauna as a whole and
refined by Fursenko (1978) for foraminifera. His concept is
based on the assumption that only a combination of morpho-
logical (or comparative morphological), geographical, eco-
logical, geochronological, and discriminative criteria can
provide correct identification of a species. The morphological
criteria describe external and internal features of
foraminiferal tests. The geographical, ecological, and
geochronological criteria associate species with certain zoo-
geographical areoles and environmental conditions required
for their existence and adaptation at certain chronological
time interval. The discriminative criteria specify parameters
useful to distinguish foraminiferal species from each other.
The above criteria correspond to the main philosophical
categories of time (geochronological), space (geographical),
evolution (morphological), and metabolism (ecological) of
organisms. Being isolated from each other inevitably leads to
the emergence of distinct features. In our material they are
represented by a group of species previously united under the
name A. beccarii, as will be discussed below.
Using this concept, this work classifies and uses stratigra-
phy for some taxa (e.g., Ammonia spp., Yanko 1990a) that
were considered by some authors as useless for biostrati-
graphic purposes because of difficulties and uncertainties in
their identification (e.g., Holzmann 2000). The main
characteristics are morphological, geochronological, geo-
graphic, and ecological, primarily morphological criteria.
All taxa of the Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto-
Caspian are classified as belonging to Kingdom Protoctista,
Class Foraminifera d’Orbigny, 1826, Subclass Sarcodina
Eichwald, 1830 (Table 3.1).
Classification of the Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto-
Caspian includes altogether 180 benthic and 7 planktonic
species and subspecies. Among benthic foraminifera,
30 are agglutinated, and the remaining lower taxa are
characterized by calcium carbonate tests. The classification
of Loeblich and Tappan (1988) provides the basis for the
generic classification used in this study. The taxonomic
¼
(continued)
3.2 Principles of Taxonomic Classification 23
Table 3.1 Taxonomic classification of the Late Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian Region
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826
Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830
Order Astrorhizida Lankester, 1885
Family Astrorhizidae Brady, 1881
Genus Astrammina Rhumbler in Wiesner, 1931
Astrammina sphaerica (Brady, 1871)***
Genus Bathysiphon Sars, 1872
Bathysiphon hirudinea (Herron-Allen and Earland, 1932)***
Family Psammosphaeridae Haeckel, 1894
Subfamily Psammosphaerinae Haeckel, 1894
Genus Psammosphaera Schultze, 1875
Psammmosphaera sp.
Family Saccaminidae Brady, 1884
Subfamily Saccamininae Brady, 1884
Genus Saccammina Sars, in Carpenter, 1869
Saccammina sp.**
Genus Proteonella Lukina, 1969
Proteonella atlantica (Cushman), 1944
Genus Ovammina Dahlgren, 1962
Ovammina leptoderma Mayer**
Genus Hemisphaerammina Loeblich and Tappan, 1957
Hemisphaerammina sp.**
Order Ammodiscida Fursenko, 1958
Family Ammodiscidae Reuss, 1862
Genus Glomospira Rzehak, 1885
Glomospira glomerata Hoglund, 1947*
Glomospira gordialis (Jones and Parker, 1860)***
Family Discamminidae Mikhalevich, 1980
Genus Discammina Lacroix, 1932
Discammina imperspica Yanko, 1974
Family Lituolidae De Blainville, 1825
Genus Lituola Lamarck, 1804
Lituola nautilus Brady *
Genus Labrospira Höglund, 1947
Labrospira sp.*
Genus Ammobaculites Cushman, 1910
Ammobaculites exiguus contractus Mayer, 1972
Ammobaculites ponticus Mikhalevich, 1968
Genus Haplophragmoides Cushman, 1910
Haplophragmoides tenuicutis (Mayer), 1972
Genus Ammoscalaria Höglund, 1947
Ammoscalaria verae Mayer, 1968
Ammoscalaria sp., in Yanko, 1989
Genus Haplophragmium (Reussina) Gryzbowski, 1895
Haplophragmium maync Loeblich and Tappan, 1952*
Family Textulariidae Ehrenberg, 1838
Genus Textularia Defrance, 1824
Textularia deltoidea Reuss*
Textularia conica d’Orbigny, 1839 ( Textularia sp. in Yanko, 1989)
Order Schlumbergerinida Mikhalevich, 1980
Family Miliamminidae Saidova, 1981
Genus Birsteiniolla Mayer, 1974
Birsteiniolla macrostoma Yankovskaya and Mikhalevich, 1972***
(continued)
24 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera
Table 3.1 (continued)
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826
Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830
Genus Miliammina (Brady, 1870)
Miliammina fusca (Brady, 1870)
Miliammina groenlandica Cushman****
Family Siphonapertinae Saidova, 1975
Genus Siphonaperta Vella, 1957
Siphonaperta agglutinans (d’Orbigny, 1839)
Order Ataxophragmiida Fursenko, 1958
Family Trochamminidae Schwager, 1877
Genus Entzia von Daday, 1884
Entzia polystoma caspica (Mayer), 1968**
Entzia polystoma dacica (Tufescu), 1973****
Genus Rotaliammina Cushman, 1924
Rotaliammina intermedia Rhumbler 1938*
Rotaliammina ochracea (Williamson), 1858
Family Verneulinidae Cushman, 1911
Genus Spiroplectinata Cushman, 1927
Spiroplectinata perexilis (Mayer), 1968**
Family Eggerellidae Cushman, 1937
Genus Eggerelloides Cushman, 1933
Eggerelloides scaber (Williamson, 1858)
Order Miliolida Lankester, 1885
Family Cornuspiridae Shultze, 1854
Genus Cornuspira Shultze, 1854
Cornuspira minuscula (Mayer, 1968)
Cornuspira planorbis Shultze, 1854
Superfamily Milioloidea Ehrenberg, 1839
Family Miliolidae Ehrenberg, 1839
Subfamily Miliolinae Ehrenberg, 1839
Genus Ammomassilina Cushman, 1933
Massilina alveoliniformis (Millett, 1898)*
Subfamily Quinqueloculininae Cushman, 1917
Genus Quinqueloculina d’Orbigny, 1826
Quinqueloculina angulata (Williamson, 1858)
Quinqueloculina bicornis (Walker and Jacob), 1798
Quinqueloculina consobrina (d’Orbigny), 1846
Quinqueloculina curvula Yanko, 1989
Quinqueloculina delicatula Bogdanowicz, 1952
Quinqueloculina inflata (d’Orbigny), 1826
Quinqueloculina laevigata (d’Orbigny), 1826
Quinqueloculina lamarckiana d’Orbigny, 1839
Quinqueloculina lata Terquem, 1878
Quinqueloculina milletti (Wiesner), 1912
Quinqueloculina oblonga (Montagu), 1803
Quinqueloculina reussi (Bogdanowicz), 1947
Quinqueloculina seminulum (Linne), 1767
Quinqueloculina venusta Karrer, 1868
Quinqueloculina vulgaris d’Orbigny, 1826
Quinqueloculina ex gr. gracilis Karrer, in Yanko, 1989
Genus Dentostomina Carman, 1933
Dentostomina bermudiana Carmann, 1933*
Genus Massilina Schlumberger, 1893
¼
(continued)
3.2 Principles of Taxonomic Classification 25
Table 3.1 (continued)
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826
Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830
Massilina inaequalis (d’Orbigny), 1839
Massilina secans (d’Orbigny), 1826
Genus Lachlanella Vella, 1957
Lachlanella sp.
Genus Pateoris Loeblich and Tappan, 1953
Pateoris dilatatus (d’Orbigny), 1838
Pateoris sp., in Yanko, 1989
Genus Pyrgo Defrance, 1824
Pyrgo elongata (d’Orbigny), 1826
Pyrgo fisheri (Schlumberger), 1891
Subfamily Miliolinellinae Vella, 1957
Genus Miliolinella Wiesner, 1931
Miliolinella circularis (Bornemann), 1865
Miliolinella elongata Kruit, 1955 Miliolinella sp., in Yanko, 1989
Miliolinella risilla Mayer, 1972*
Miliolinella selene (Karrer), 1868
Miliolinella subrotunda (Montagu), 1803
Subfamily Tubinelinae Rhumbler, 1906
Genus Articulina (d’Orbigny), 1826
Articulina tubulosa (Seguenza, 1862)
Articulina ex gr. tenella Eichwald, 1830
Articulina sp., in Yanko, 1989
Subfamily Triloculininae Bogdanowicz, 1981
Genus Triloculina d’Orbigny, 1826
Triloculina (?) angustioris (Bogdanowicz), 1952
Triloculina marioni Schlumberger, 1883
Triloculina sp. 2, in Yanko, 1989
Genus Sigmella Azbel  Mikhalevich, 1983
Sigmella distorta (Phleger and Parker), 1951
Sigmella tenuis (Czjzek), 1848
Sigmella sp., in Yanko, 1989
Genus Cycloforina Łuczkowska, 1972
Cycloforina? sp.
Order Lagenida Fursenko, 1958
Superfamily Nodosariidae Ehrenberg, 1838
Family Nodosariidae Ehrenberg, 1838
Subfamily Nodosariinae Ehrenberg, 1838
Genus Orthomorphina Stainforth, 1952
Orthomorphina calomorpha (Reuss), 1866
Orthomorphina drammenensis Feyling-Hanssen, 1964
Orthomorphina filiformis (d’Orbigny), 1826
Subfamily Lageninae Brady, 1881
Genus Lagena Walker and Jacob in Kanmacher, 1798
Lagena quadrilatera quadrilatera Earland, 1934
Lagena semistriata (Williamson), 1858
Lagena striata (d’Orbigny), 1839
Lagena vulgaris Williamson, 1858
Lagena sp., in Yanko, 1989
Superfamily Glandulinoidea Yanko, 1989
Family Glandulinidae Reuss, 1860
Subfamily Glandulininae Reuss, 1860
(continued)
26 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera
Table 3.1 (continued)
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826
Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830
Genus Glandulina d’Orbigny, in de la Sagra, 1839
Glandulina sp., in Yanko and Troitskaya, 1987
Family Polymorphinidae d’Orbigny, 1839
Genus Guttulina d’Orbigny, 1839
Guttulina lactea (Walker and Jacob), 1798
Subfamily Laryngosigminae Saidova, 1981
Genus Esosyrinx Loeblich and Tappan, 1953
Esosyrinx jatzkoi Yanko, 1974
Esosyrinx praelongus (Terquem), 1878
Esosyrinx undulosus (Terquem), 1878
Esosyrinx sp., in Yanko, 1989
Genus Laryngosigma Loeblich and Tappan, 1953
Laryngosigma williamsoni (Terquem), 1878
Subfamily Entolingulinae Saidova, 1981
Genus Entolingulina Loeblich and Tappan, 1961
Entolingulina deplanata Yanko, 1974
Subfamily Oolininae Loeblich and Tappan, 1961
Genus Oolina d’Orbigny, 1839
Oolina squamosa (Montagu), 1803
Oolina sp., in Yanko, 1989
Genus Fissurina Reuss, 1850
Fissurina fabaria Troitskaya, 1987
Fissurina fragilis Troitskaya, 1987
Fissurina lineata (Williamson), 1858
Fissurina lucida (Williamson), 1858
Fissurina nummiformis (Büchner), 1940
Fissurina porrecta Troitskaya, 1987
Fissurina solida Seguenza, 1862
Fissurina tamanica Yanko, 1989
Fissurina sp., in Yanko, 1989
Genus Parafissurina Parr, 1947
Parafissurina aventricosa McCulloch, 1968
Parafissurina dzemetinica Yanko, 1974
Parafissurina ex gr. lateralis Cushman, in Yanko and Troitskaya, 1987
Order Rotaliida Delage and Herouard, 1896
Superfamily Discorboidea Ehrenberg, 1838
Family Discorbiidae Ehrenberg, 1838
Subfamily Discorbiinae Ehrenberg, 1838
Genus Discorbis Lamarck, 1804
Discorbis bertheloti (d’Orbigny), 1839
Discorbis vilardeboana (d’Orbigny), 1839
Discorbis sp.
Genus Gavelinopsis Hofker, 1951
Gavelinopsis sp., in Yanko, 1989
Subfamily Rosaliinae Reuss, 1963
Genus Rosalina d’Orbigny, 1826
Rosalina catesbyana d’Orbigny, 1839
Rosalina sp., in Yanko, 1989
Family Glabratellidae Loeblich and Tappan, 1964
Genus Heronallenia Chapman and Parr, 1931
Heronallenia chasteri (Heron-Allen and Earland), 1913
(continued)
3.2 Principles of Taxonomic Classification 27
Table 3.1 (continued)
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826
Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830
Superfamily Anomalinoidea Cushman, 1927
Family Cibicidae Cushman, 1927
Genus Cibicides Montfort, 1808
Cibicides dispars (d’Orbigny), 1838
Cibicides lobatulus (Walker and Jacob), 1798
Cibicides mckannai Galloway and Wiesler, 1927
Family Planorbulinidae Schwager, 1877
Genus Planorbulina d’Orbigny, 1826
Planorbulinella mediterranensis d’Orbigny, 1826
Family Acervulinidae Schultze, 1854
Genus Acervulina Schultze, 1854
Acervulina inhaerens Schulze, 1854
Superfamily Nonionoidae Schultze, 1854
Family Nonionidae Schultze, 1854
Genus Nonion Montfort, 1808
Nonion matagordanus Kornfeld, in Cushman, 1939
Nonion pauciloculum Cushman, 1944
Genus Florilus Montfort, 1808
Florilus trochospiralis Mayer, 1968
Florilus cf. atlanticum (Cushman, 1947)
Family Trichochyalidae Saidova, 1981
Genus Trichochyalus Loeblich and Tappan, 1953
Trichochyalus aguajoi (Bermudez), 1935
Superfamily Rotalioidea Ehrenberg, 1839
Family Rotaliidae Ehrenberg, 1839
Genus Rotalia Lamarck, 1804
Rotalia calcar (d’Orbigny in Deshayes, 1830)*
Family Ammoniidae Saidova, 1981
Genus Ammonia Brünnich, 1772
Ammonia agoiensis Yanko, 1990
Ammonia ammoniformis (d’Orbigny), 1826
Ammonia beccarii (Linne), 1758
Ammonia caspica Stschedrina, 1975
Ammonia caucasica Yanko, 1990
Ammonia compacta Hofker, 1969
Ammonia novoeuxinica Yanko, 1979
Ammonia parasovica Stchedrina and Mayer, 1975
Ammonia parkinsoniana (d’Orbigny), 1839
Ammonia tepida (Cushman), 1928
Family Canaliferidae Krasheninnikov, 1960
Genus Canalifera Krasheninnikov, 1960
Canalifera earlandi (Cushman), 1936
Canalifera nigarensis (Cushman), 1939
Canalifera oweniana (d’Orbigny), 1839
Canalifera parkerae Yanko, 1974
Canalifera punctata (Terquem), 1878
Canalifera ex gr. verriculata (Brady), in Yanko and Troitskaya, 1987
Family Elphidiidae Galloway, 1933
Subfamily Haynesininae Yanko, subfam.n.
Genus Porosononion Putrja, 1958
Porosononion martkobi martkobi Bogdanowicz, 1947
(continued)
28 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera
Table 3.1 (continued)
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826
Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830
Porosononion martkobi ponticus Yanko, 1989
Porosononion martkobi tschaudicus Yanko, 1989
Porosononion subgranosus mediterranicus Yanko, 1989
Porosononion subgranosus pshadicus Yanko, 1989
Porosononion submartkobi Yanko, 1989
Genus Aubignyna Margerel, 1970
Aubignyna mariei Margarel, 1970
Aubignyna perlucida (Herron-Allen and Earland), 1913
Aubignyna suckumiensis Yanko, 1989
Genus Haynesina Banner and Culver, 1978
Haynesina anglica (Murray), 1965
Haynesina eltigenica Yanko, 1989
Haynesina ex gr. germanica (Ehrenberg, 1840)
Subfamily Elphidiinae Galloway, 1933
Genus Elphidium Montfort, 1808
Elphidium aculeatum (d’Orbigny), 1846
Elphidium caspicum azovicum Yanko, 1989
Elphidium caspicum caspicum Yanko, 1989
Elphidium caspicum karadenizum Yanko, 1989
Elphidium caspicum uzunlarum Yanko, 1989
Elphidium incertum tuberculatum (Williamson, 1858)
Elphidium josephinum (d’Orbigny), 1846
Elphidium margaritaceum Cushman, 1939
Elphidium ponticum Dolgopolskaja and Pauli, 1931
Elphidium shochinae Mayer, 1968
Elphidium umbilicatulum (Williamson), 1858
Elphidium sp., in Yanko, 1989
Genus Cribroelphidium Cushman and Bronnimann, 1948
Cribroelphidium percursum Yanko, 1974
Cribroelphidium poeyanum (d’Orbigny), 1839
Cribroelphidium translucens (Natland), 1938
Cribroelphidium troitskayae Yanko, 1989
Genus Mayerella Yanko 1987
Mayerella aralica Yanko, 1987
Mayerella brotzkajae (Mayer), 1968
Mayerella kolkhidica Yanko, 1989
Superfamily Globogerinoidea Carpenter, 1862
Family Globigerinidae Carpenter, 1862
Genus Globigerina d’Orbigny, 1826
Globigerina bulloides d’Orbigny, 1826
Globigerina praebulloides Blow, 1959
Globigerina quinqueloba Natland, 1938
Genus Globoquadrina Finlay, 1947
Globoquadrina dutertrei (d’Orbigny, 1839)
Globoquadrina hexagona (Natland, 1938)
Genus Globorotalia Cushman, 1927
Globorotalia pumpilio Parker, 1962
Globorotalia crassaformis (Galloway and Wissler, 1927)
Order Buliminida Fursenko, 1958
Family Buliminidae Jones, in Griffith et al., 1875
Subfamily Buliminidae Jones, 1875
position of the Foraminifera has varied since their recognition
as Protozoa (Protista) by Schultze in 1854, who referred to
the order Foraminiferida. Loeblich and Tappan (1992)
reranked Foraminifera as a class as it is now commonly
regarded by paleontologists. Tests of agglutinated foraminif-
era are represented by four main types that differ in their
morphology and internal structure and are placed into four
orders: Astrorhizida, Ammodiscida, Schlumbergerinida, and
Ataxophragmiida. All their representatives are characterized
by different foreign particles and cement as well as the ratio
between them. Secretory calcium carbonate foraminifera also
belong to four orders: (1) Miliolida (high Mg calcite,
porcellanous, three layers, non-lamellar, imperforate,
tangle-shaped tests). (2) Lagenida (low Mg calcite,
monolamellar, hyaline radial, single or multiple chambers,
uniserial or planispiral), (3) Rotaliida (low Mg calcite,
bilamellar and bilamellar–rotaloid, hyaline, perforated, mul-
tichambered), and (4) Buliminida (low Mg calcite,
bilamellar, perforated, multichambered, biserial, triserial).
3.3 Agglutinated Taxa 29
Table 3.1 (continued)
Kingdom Protoctista
Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826
Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830
Genus Bulimina d’Orbigny, 1826
Bulimina aculeata d’Orbigny, 1826
Bulimina elongata d’Orbigny, 1826
Globobulimina affinis (d’Orbigny, 1839)
Family Uvigerinidae Haeckel, 1894
Genus Trifarina Cushman, 1923
Trifarina angulosa (Williamson), 1858
Family Bolivinidae Cushman, 1927
Genus Bolivina d’Orbigny, 1839
Bolivina doniezi Cushman and Wickenden, 1929
Bolivina pseudoplicata Heron-Allen and Earland, 1930
Bolivina variabilis (Williamson), 1858
Bolivina ex gr. dilatata Reuss, 1850
Bolivina sp.
Genus Brizalina Costa, 1856
Brizalina spathulata (Williamson), 1858
Brizalina striatula (Cushman), 1922
Brizalina ex gr. danvillensis (Howe and Wallace), 1932, in Yanko and Troiskaya, 1987
Note. Asterisks mark the species, images, and, in some cases, descriptions that are provided in earlier publications on the Black and Caspian Seas: *
Velkanova 1981; ** Mayer 1968, 1972, 1976; *** Mikhalevich 1968; **** Tufescu 1973, 1974. These species were not found in the material
described in this book and are not illustrated herein. Most of the others are supplemented by images and descriptions herein
3.3 Agglutinated Taxa
To classify agglutinated foraminifera from the Ponto-Caspian
geographic region, special attention was paid to the compo-
sition and quantitative ratio of agglutinated particles and
cement in their tests. In calcareous foraminifera special
attention was given to the microstructure (granular, radial),
layer (monolamellar, bilamellar, bilamellar–rotaliid), poros-
ity (size, shape, pore density), structure of the septal sutures,
and canal system (e.g., in rotaliids).
The agglutinated foraminiferal genera Miliammina and
Siphonaperta with quinqueloculine chamber arrangement
were moved from the family Rzehakinidae (Orlov 1959) or
suborder Textulariina (Loeblich and Tappan 1964, 1981,
1984), where they were located based on siliceous content
of their tests, to the family Shlumbergerinidae described by
Mikhalevich (1980, 1983).
The content of agglutinated particles and cement are not
permanent characters of these species; they vary significantly
on different substrates. For example, the tests for Eg. scaber
and Mi. fusca collected from the quartz substrate are
dominated by SiO2 and are not soluble in H2S. In contrast,
those collected from the carbonate substrate have an elevated
proportion of carbonate particles soluble in H2S. In our
opinion, a false impression is created wherein the composi-
tion of cement is not a result of the functional characteristics
of the cytoplasm, but depends on nutrition. Rather, appar-
ently as Saidova (1981) noted, forms that build their shells
from agglutinated material extracted from the soil are “soil
eaters” and receive all the necessary biochemical elements by
assimilating the soil.
The chamber arrangement seems to be the most stable
feature of agglutinated species, as was stated by Mikhalevich
. A similar
arrangement of chambers has a type of species of given
genera Ms. rugosa Sidebottom (Loeblich and Таррап
3.3b–d)
(1980, 1983). In general, agglutinated foraminifera are rare
among both living and fossil assemblages and have a spo-
radic distribution in geological sequences.
30 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera
3.4 Taxonomic Classification of the Order
Miliolida
The order Miliolida in the Ponto-Caspian geographic region
includes 42 lower taxa with a tangle-shaped structure of tests
that have a porcelain-like, three-layer, non-lamellar-type wall
with a thin organic matrix. At magnification of 5500 times in
the SEM (Yanko 1989, volume II, Table IV, Fig. 11b),
crystals composing the wall have an elongated habit and are
arranged randomly, as a result of which there are gaps of
different shapes and sizes between the crystals that appar-
ently act as pores. Clear pore canals are absent. Crystal sizes
include length from 0.3 to 1.4 μm and width of 0.01 μm. The
test thickness decreases or increases in response to a decrease
or increase of salinity, respectively. This dependence can be
seen both on modern and fossil foraminifera and can be used
for paleogeographic reconstructions. The internal structure of
miliolid tests is a fundamental feature in generic diagnosis.
However, it is often not expressed in test morphology, which
produces errors in determining the genus, as was pointed out
by Krasheninnikov (1959), Bogdanowicz (1969), and others.
With plentiful and varied material, the author analyzed
this feature in all morphological differences of the Ponto-
Caspian Quaternary miliolids using thin cross sections. The
following results were obtained: (1) Tests with four chambers
on the multichamber and three on the small-chamber sides
have quinqueloculine (fivefold) arrangement of chambers at
all stages of ontogenesis, with angular distances between
them of 72
(Fig. 3.1).
Tests with three chambers on the multichamber and two
on the small-chamber sides can have (a) a triloculine struc-
ture, in which the chambers are located at an angle of 120
(Fig. 3.2a, b), and (b) cryptoquinqueloculine (Bogdanowicz
1969) or pseudotriloculine (Krasheninnikov 1959) structure
(Fig. 3.1b, e). In the latter case, the three outer chambers (I, II,
III) of the last whorl in adult forms sharply increase in size
and overlap the previous ones. The angular distance is 144
between chambers I and II and II and III and 72
between
chambers III and I. Chambers IV and V are hidden by
external ones; however, they are all adjacent and the angle
between them is 72
(Fig. 3.2c, d).
Such structure of miliolid tests was first described by
Bogdanowicz (1969) and has been fully confirmed on our
material. Representatives of Massilina and Pateoris (genera-
tion B) have a quinqueloculine arrangement of chambers in
the initial whorl, cryptoquinqueloculine in the next one, and
planospiral in the rest of the test (Fig. 3.3a–d).
Tests of A1 generation have predominantly
quinqueloculine arrangement of chambers in all stages of
ontogenesis, while tests of A2 generation have all three
types of chamber arrangement (Fig.
Fig. 3.1 Inner structure of Quinqueloculina tests. Here and in Figs. 3.3
and 3.4: B, megageneration B; A1 and A2, microgenerations. (Drawn by
Irena Motnenko)
Fig. 3.2 Inner structure of Triloloculina (a, b), Sigmella (c, d), and
Cornuspira (e, f) tests. (Drawn by Irena Motnenko)
1964, Fig. 350–2с) and Pt. hauerinoides (Rhumbler)
(Loeblich and Таррап 1964, Fig. 150–6b). This enables us
to supplement and clarify diagnoses of given genera.
3.5 Taxonomic Classification of Order Lagenida 31
Fig. 3.3 Inner structure of Massilina and Pateoris tests: (a) and (e)
apertural view; (b. c, d) chamber arrangement. (Drawn by Irena
Motnenko)
There is no common understanding of miliolids with a
lamellar tooth. Loeblich and Tappan (1964, 1981) distinguish
the genera Miliolinella and Soutuloris with triloculine and
quinqueloculine, respectively, in the early stages.
Bogdanowicz (1969) indicates that, judging by the
“descriptions and images of the type species Ml. subrotunda
(Montagu), it may include tests with three and four to five
external chambers, and there is no certainty that the triloculine
type is inherent in the former” (Bogdanowicz 1969, 94).
Representatives of this group of miliolids have both
cryptoquinqueloculine and quinqueloculine types of chamber
arrangements. We found no such forms with triloculine cham-
ber arrangement. Therefore, we refrain from isolating the
genus Scutuloris. A more precise diagnosis of the genus
Miliolinella is given in the systematic section (see Chap. 8).
Thus, we refer to the genus Quinqueloculina for species
with quinqueloculine (Q. angulata, Q. ех gr. gracilis,
Q. lamarckiana, Q. lata, Q. milletti, Q. seminulum,
Q. veпusta, Q. vulgaris) and cryptoquinqueloculine
(Q. bicornis, Q. consobrina, Q. inflata, Q. laevigata,
Q. oblonga, Q. curvula) types of chamber arrangement. For
tests with triloculine chamber arrangement, we refer to the
genera Triloculina and Sigmella. In the latter, only the late
sections are sigmoiline, while the early chambers are
characterized by the triloculine plane of coiling (Fig. 3.2d).
With the exception of the genera Massilina, Miliolinella,
Pateoris, and Sigmella, diagnoses of all other Miliolida are
accepted without change in accordance with the
classifications used. In addition to the abovementioned
types of test arrangements, our material contains forms with
a large proloculum and a spiral-coiled undivided second
chamber (Fig. 3.2e, f), with a porcelainlike nonporous wall
(genus Cornuspira). We support the opinion of Bogdanowicz
(1969) about the need to preserve the name Cornuspira,
although it is a junior synonym for Cyclogyra. This is
because the former is firmly entered in the paleontological
literature and gave rise to the terms derived from it (e.g.,
“cornuspira,” “cornuspiroid”), which are widely used for the
characteristic of a certain type of test arrangement in
foraminifera.
Thus, in the order Miliolida, we distinguish two families:
Cornuspiridae (the most primitive type of test arrangement)
and Miliolidae (various modifications of the correctly
ball-shaped type of test arrangement). The latter includes
four subfamilies: (1) Quinqueloculinae with quinqueloquline
and cryptoquinqueloquline chamber arrangements on all
stages of ontogenesis (genus Quinqueloculina) (Fig. 3.1), or
only at the beginning, later becoming planospiral (Massilina,
Pateoris) (Fig. 3.3) or biloculine (Pyrgo) (Fig. 3.4),
(2) Miliolinelinae (quinqueloquline type with laminated
tooth, Miliolinella), (3) Tubinellinae (quinqueloquline in
early stage, later becoming uniserial, Articulina), and
(4) Triloculinae (triloculine in all stages of ontogenesis,
Triloculina, or only in the early stage and later becoming
sigmoline, Sigmella).
3.5 Taxonomic Classification of Order
Lagenida
The order Lagenida in the Ponto-Caspian geographic region
includes 31 lower taxa. Lagenida tests have a monolamellar,
optically, radially radiant and thin perforated wall. The main
characteristic features are the test arrangement and aperture
that were studied in detail. As a result, seven types of test
arrangement were established: secondary single-chambered;
uniaxial multichambered; double row in the initial and single
row in the final sections; close to quinqueloculine; single row
flattened; two rows, laterally compressed; and three rows in
the initial part, later turning into two rows. Regardless of the
test type and aperture shape (plain or lucid), the
overwhelming majority of lagenids have an internal tube of
different lengths and configurations as an element of the test
internal structure at all stages of ontogenesis. This depends
on the functional characteristics of the cytoplasm and acts as
a controlling element in the most vulnerable part of the test,
the aperture, making such forms better organized compared
to those without internal tubes.
32 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera
Fig. 3.4 Inner structure of Pyrgo tests: (a) peripheral view, (b)
apertural view, (c) quinqueloquline and cryptoquinqueloquline chamber
arrangements at the beginning only, (d, e) biloculine chamber arrange-
ment on the later stage. (Drawn by Irena Motnenko)
Within the order Lagenida, the author distinguishes two
superfamilies—Nodosarioidea Ehrenberg, 1838 (without
internal tube) and Glandulinoidea Yanko, superfam. Nov.
(with internal tube)—represented by 30 species from ten
genera: (1) Orthomorphina (uniserial test shape, simple
rounded aperture), (2) Lagena (single-chambered test, simple
rounded aperture), (3) Guttulina (test asymmetrical with
irregular arrangement close to the triloculine one at the
early stage and uniserial latter, radial aperture with inner
tube on all stages of ontogenesis), (4) Glandulina (test
biserial at the beginning and uniserial at distal end, slit-like
aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis),
(5) Esosyrinx (biserial test with angle between chambers of
90
, radial aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogene-
sis); (6) Laryngosigma (biserial test with 180
angle between
chambers, radial aperture with inner tube on all stages of
ontogenesis), (7) Entolingulina (secondary uniserially flat-
tened test, oval aperture with inner tube on all stages of
ontogenesis), (8) Oolina (ball- or egg-shaped test, simple
rounded or radial aperture with inner tube on all stages of
ontogenesis), (9) Fissurina (oval- or ball-shaped, slit-like
aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis), and
(10) Parafisurina (oval-shaped, slit-like aperture with inner
tube on all stages of ontogenesis) (Table 3.1).
3.6 Taxonomic Classification of Order
Rotaliida
The order Rotaliida is dominant in our material. It includes
65 benthic and 7 planktonic lower taxa. The taxonomic
classification of Rotaliida is based on a combination of a
significant number of criteria that includes arrangement of
test chambers, wall layering and microstructure, presence
(absence) of a system of canals, location of single or multiple
apertures, and others. Different researchers evaluate differ-
ently the significance of individual features, especially
among nonionids and elphidiids. Voloshinova and Dain
(1952) consider both of them as belonging to one family
Nonionoidea, while later Voloshinova (1958) separated
them into different families. Loeblich and Tappan repeatedly
changed their opinion on this matter. In the Treatise
(Loeblich and Tappan 1964), they referred Elphidium to the
superfamily Rotalioidea and Nonion to Cassidulinoidea on
the basis of a radially radiant wall in the former and granular
in the latter. In a later work, Loeblich and Tappan (1981)
refer these genera to superfamilies Discorboidea and
Nonionoidea, respectively. At the same time, they believed
that the nonionids are more highly organized compared to
elphidiids. In Loeblich and Tappan (1984), Nonion and
Elphidium are included in superfamily Nonionidea and
Rotaloidea, respectively, and here the latter are considered
to have a higher level of development compared to the
former. Mikhalevich (1983) had a similar point of view
referring Nonion and Elphidium to independent orders—
Nonionida and Elphidiida. Saidova (1981) assigned them to
different suborders Nonionina and Elphidiina of the order
Nonionida. Similar problems can be noted for other
representatives of the order Rotaliida. The ambiguity of the
position of individual taxa in the system of order Rotaliida
that occupies a high taxonomic position in the evolutionary
scheme of foraminifera is associated with a significant
variability of signs of the external and internal structures as
well as the layering and microstructure of the test wall. These
challenges are well illustrated using examples of the Ponto-
Caspian representatives.
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Title: I'r Aifft Ac Yn Ol
Author: D. Rhagfyr Jones
Release date: December 31, 2017 [eBook #56275]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: Welsh
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK I'R AIFFT AC YN
OL ***
YR AWDWR.
I’R AIFFT
AC YN OL:
GAN Y
Parch. D. RHAGFYR JONES,
TREORCI.
GWRECSAM:
Hughes a’i Fab, Cyhoeddwyr
1904.
CYFLWYNIAD.
I’R
Henadur E. H. Davies, Ysw., Y.H.,
PENRE, RHONDDA,
YR HWN YN GYNTAF A GEISIODD
GENYF WNEUD MOES-GYFARCHIAD YN Y
FFURF YMA I’R CYHOEDD ODDIAR LWYFAM Y WASG,
A’R HWN SYDD YN DYFOD YN FWY HYSBYS O
FLWYDDYN I FLWYDDYN YN EI ENWAD
A’I WLAD FEL UN O’R BONEDDWYR
MWYAF LLENGAROL, DYNGAROL,
A CHRISTGAROL,
Y CYFLWYNAF Y GYFROL FECHAN ANELWIG HON,
TRWY EI GANIATAD.
RHAGDRAETH.
MAE llawer wedi ei ysgrifenu ar ymweliadau â’r Aifft a
Chanaan, o dro i dro, mewn ieithoedd eraill yn gystal ag yn y
Gymraeg. Ond credaf fod lle i’r llyfr hwn, am ei fod yn wahanol
i’r rhan fwyaf, os nad yr oll, o’i gyfathrach.
Bydd yn fwy personol.
Yma ceir y golygfeydd a’r digwyddiadau nid yn sefyll allan ar eu
pen eu hun, fel pethau diberthynas; yn hytrach deuant atom â lliw
myfyrdod y gweledydd arnynt i gyd. Bydd arddull ac argraffiadau
meddyliol yr awdwr yn rhan o honynt, ac yn eu gwneud felly yn
wahanol i’r hyn ydynt gan neb arall.
Nid yw llyfr o fath hwn i’w restru ymysg arwein-lyfrau (guide-
books) a phethau o’r fath: llenyddiaeth ydyw, ac fel llenyddiaeth y
mae i’w ddarllen a’i fwynhau. Os na fydd y darllenydd yn cydweled â
phobpeth, bydd hyny’n glod i’r awdwr ac iddo yntau, fe ddichon;
oblegid gwn mai hoffach gan yr awdwr fydd deffro meddwl, a’i gadw
ar ddihun, nag enill rhywysgafn-air ogymeradwyaeth teg yr olwg
arno, ond byr ei hoedl.
Os daw’r llyfr â ni i adnabod yn well y Dwyreinfyd didwrf, cryd yr
hil a chryd ein crefydd, bydd hyny yn dâl am ei ddarllen ac am ei
ysgrifenu.
ELFED.
Llundain: Gorphenaf, 1904.
Gan GWYLFA.
Lle mae’r Nile yn llifo’n llachar
Buost yn ymdeithydd llesg,
Lle bu Joseph yn y carchar,
Lle bu Moses yn hesg;
Ac wedi gweled byd mor bell,
Difyr oedd d’od i Gymru’n well.
Un o’m hoff freuddwydion inau
Oedd cael gwel’d y lotos pêr,
A phob un o’r pyramidiau
Tan ei goron wen o sêr:
Ond mwyach ni rwgnachaf fi,
Mae’r Aifft i gyd yn dy gyfrol di.
Yno mae yr Arab hapus,
Yno mae y Sphinx diwên;
Bywyd yn segurdod melus,
Harddwch yn bererin hen:
A dyma wlad y rhamant fawr
Mewn cyfrol fach Gymreig yn awr.
Plygodd hi ei haden dirion
Dros fy Iesu y’more’i oes,
A hi ofalodd yru Simon
Tua’r bryn i ddwyn ei Groes:
Gwell yw anghofio’i gorthrwm cas,
A chofio’r Aifft y’nyddiau’i Gras.
Mehefin, 1904.
GAIR YN EI BRYD.
EG yw d’we’yd i lawer o gynwys y llyfryn hwn ymddangos
mewn rhifyne o’r Celt a’r Tywysydd; eto, ceir yma dwsged o
bethe’n gwel’d gole’ dydd am y tro cynta’, heblaw fod y lleill
dipyn yn fwy trwsiadus eu lliw a’u llun. Prin y b’aswn yn eu cyhoeddi
mewn ffurf mor ymhongar oni bai am gymelliade cyfeillion, y penaf o
ba rai yw’r boneddwr y cyflwynaf y llyfryn iddo. Ceisiaf yn ostyngedig
i’r cynorthwyon fod gryfed a’r cymelliade, fel na bo i farug Siomiant
ddifa blagur f’anturiaethe llenyddol.
Mae’r un mor deg hefyd imi grybwyll enwe a chydnabod persone
a wnaethant fy nhaith yn gysurus a llwyddianus drwy eu
caredigrwydd ffodus a diffwdan. Heblaw f’eglwys fy hun yn y
cyfanswm o honi, na’r hon nid oes ei gwell y’Nghymru, dyna W.
Phillips, Ysw., Cynghorwr W. T. Jones, Ysw., D. Morgan, Ysw., Mri. T.
E. Jones, A. Pimm, a Henry Jones, o Dreorci; y Parch. J. R. Davies a’i
deulu dedwydd, Caerdydd; J. Davies-Bryan, Ysw., Alecsandria; E.
Davies-Bryan, Ysw., Cairo; y’nghyda thri o “o fechgyn” yr ola’, sef
Jones, Huws, a Roberts. Dymunaf ore’ deufyd iddynt oll, a bendith
gwraig a phlentyn dros ben.
Oddiwrth yr AWDWR.
CYNWYSIAD.
PENOD. TUDAL.
I. Parotoade 1
II. Y Llong a’i Phreswylwyr 6
III. Rhagor am y Criw a’r Swyddogion 11
IV. Bywyd bob Dydd 16
V. Rhagor am y Bywyd bob Dydd 20
VI. Ar y Daith 26
VII. Fy Nyddiadur 32
VIII. Dalen arall o’m Dyddiadur 38
IX. Un arall eto 43
X. Glanio 48
XI. Mewn Dalfa 54
XII. Trem oddiar y Trothwy 59
XIII. Ffawd a Ffwdan 64
XIV. Ar Grwydr 73
XV. Yn y Tren i Gairo 81
XVI. Cairo wedi’r Dydd 88
XVII. Cairo wedi’r Nos 95
XVIII. Anturiaethus 101
XIX. Byd ac Eglwys 107
XX. Ar yr Afon 118
XXI. Lle bu’r Mab Bychan 126
XXII. Ar Fin yr Anialwch 134
XXIII. Ychydig o Friwfwyd Gweddill 142
XXIV. Yn Ol 152
DARLUNIAU.
TUDAL.
Yr Awdwr. (Wyneb-
ddarlun)
Alecsandria. I wynebu tud. 9
Cairo. I wynebu tud. 41
Pont dros y Nile. I wynebu tud. 89
Dan y Palmwydd. I wynebu tud. 105
Myfyrio’r Coran. I wynebu tud. 121
Darn o’r Bazaar. I wynebu tud. 137
Cheops a’r Sphinx. I wynebu tudal. 153
PENOD I.
*
PAROTOADE.
AN o’wn yn hogyn bychan, yn yr oedran ag y mae plant yn cael
eu cyfri’ gan eu rhïeni y tu hwnt o gall, a phob gair a
dd’wedant yn cael ei gadarnhau â chwerthin, ei drysori yn y cof, a’i
drotian allan er budd y cym’dogion bob tro y ceir cyfle—mi glywes
fodraboedd imi yn d’we’yd fy mod yn araf sillebu un o’r Salme ar
brydnawn Sul, ac, wedi cael gafel go lew ar yr ymadrodd cynta’, imi
droi yn sydyn at ’rhen ŵr ’nhadcu, yr hwn oedd yntau’n ymlwybro
drwy’r wythfed benod o’r Rhufeinied ar ei ffordd i’r Ysgol, a gofyn
iddo:
“ ’Nhaid, ddoi di i’r Aifft?”
’Ro’em ein dau yn bur hy’ ar ein gilydd, er ei fod e’ flynydde yn
hŷn na mi. Ti a tithe oedd y dull o siarad rhyngom fynycha’, oblegid
yn fy myw y gallwn wel’d y cysondeb o arfer y person cyntaf unigol
pan yn siarad â Duw, a’r person cynta’ llïosog pan yn siarad â dynion.
Bid fyno am hyny, bu’r hen bererin am amser y’methu sylweddoli
cwestiwn ei ŵyr, ac ebai’n hurt:
“By-be’ ddeudest ti? I’r Aifft? Be’ ’nawn ni fan hono?”
“Wel,” meddwn, “mae acw ddigon o le, weldi;” ac yr wyf yn dra
sicr nad oedd neb yn cael mwy o le yn y fan lle’r oedd na myfi.
“Sut y gwyddost ti hyny?” gofynai drachefn, gan edrych dros ei
’spectol.
“Ond ydi’r Beibil yn deud fod Israel wedi myn’d odd’no,” meddwn;
a mi ddarllenes mewn tôn fuddugoliaethus:
“Pan aeth Israel o’r Aifft, tŷ Jacob oddiwrth bobl anghyfiaith!”
A f’ymresymiad i oedd—os oedd Israel “wedi myn’d odd’no,” nad
oedd dim i’n lluddias ni i fyn’d a meddianu’r wlad.
Beth bynag oedd fy syniad y pryd hwnw am fyn’d i’r Aifft, mi wn
imi fod am dros ddeng mlynedd ar hugen wed’yn na freuddwydies
am y posibilrwydd o hyny. Ond pan agorodd y ganrif bresenol ei
llyged, daeth breuddwyd y plentyn i ben yn rhanol. Mi es i yno, ond
heb yr hen ŵr. Y rheswm na ddaethe efe gyda mi i’r Aifft oedd, ei
fod wedi myn’d i Ganaan flynydde cyn hyny. Ac o’r ddau, efe gafodd
y fargen ore’.
Pe bawn yn tueddu at fod yn ofergoelus, gan osod coel ar bethe
a elwir yn arwyddion ac argoelion, ni chychwynaswn byth. Heb roi
mymryn gormod o liw ar yr helynt, yr oedd fel pe bai ryw impyn
maleisus yn chware’ ei brancie â mi o’r diwrnod y penderfynes
gychwyn.
Os ydych yn ame’, gwrandewch.
Gan mai er mwyn y fordeth yn bena’ yr o’wn y’myn’d, rhaid oedd
cael llong a fuase’n treulio mwy o amser ar y dw’r na llonge teithio
cyffredin. Ond pan aed ati i chwilio am long o’r desgrifiad, bron nad
aech ar eich llw eu bod wedi myn’d i waelod y dw’r bob un. O’r
diwedd, ar ol i deliffôn Abergorci grygu, ac i gwmnïe Caerdydd
ddechre dangos gwỳn eu llyged, dyma genadwri’n d’od fod llong
wedi ei chael oedd y’myn’d bob cam i Alecsandria heb ymdroi dim ar
y ffordd, a taw gore’ pa gynta’ i mi oedd setlo’n bersonol â’r
swyddogion y’Nghaerdydd.
Trefn y dydd bellach oedd ffrwst a thrwst a thryste, a mi ro’wn yn
y swyddfa’n talu’r llong−lôg yn yr amser a gymer i ambell bregethwr
besychu. Ar ol cwblhau hyny o wasaneth, i ffwrdd a mi i swyddfa
arall—swyddfa’r Bwrdd Masnach; ac ni welsoch y fath firi erioed.
Y’nghanol y casgliad rhyfeddaf o feibion dynion—yn wỳn, a du, a
choch, a melyn, yn faw, a sâ’m, a saw’r, o’r Cymro i’r Chinëad, ac o’r
Gwyddel i’r Hindŵ; y rhai oedd yno naill ai i gael eu cyflogi, neu,
wedi eu cyflogi, yn cymeryd yr ardystiad (nid y dirwestol), ac yn
derbyn ernes eu cyfloge—mi es ine at y bwrdd i arwyddo fy
nghydsyniad i was’naethu fel talydd ar y llong y bum yn setlo â hi,
hyd nes y dychwele o’r fordeth hono; a mi foddlones i dderbyn swllt
y mis am fy ngwasaneth. Mi gefes chwecheiniog o ernes cyn symud
o’r fan: ond rhyngoch chwi a mine, mae’r cenafon yn fy nyled o’r
gweddill hyd heddyw. Prif waith y talydd mewn llong gargo, fel yr
awgryma’r enw, yw talu arian y criw fel bo’r angen arnynt; a cheisie’r
perch’nogion a’r cadben osod yn fy mhen taw mantes i mi mewn
mwy nag un ystyr oedd bod ynddi fel swyddog, ac nid fel teithiwr.
Y’mysg manteision erill, golyge y caffe fy nghelfi lonydd gan
swyddogion y dollfa wedi i mi gyredd y làn draw.
Mi es ar y bwrdd yn brydlon, a thri o ffyddlonied yr achos hefo mi
—un o ba rai gychwynodd gyda mi ar fordeth arall dros ugen
mlynedd yn ol, mordeth sydd heb “fwrw angor” iddi eto. Rywbryd yn
ystod y dydd, cliriwyd y dec, a ffarweliwyd yn gynes; a rywbryd yn
ystod y nos codwyd yr angor, a dechreuwyd ageru i gyfeiriad y
Sianel. Ond cyn ini adel y Basin yn y Bari Doc—a phrin y
tramgwyddai’r un trochwr wrth y basin hwn—pan oedd y llong o
fewn haner ergyd careg i’r agorfa sy’n arwen i’r môr, dyma floedd! a
bloeddiade! a chwiban! a sŵn! a chrac! A chyn imi wybod fod dim
allan o le’n bod, dyma’r cadben yn d’od ataf yn gyffrous, ac yn
d’we’yd:
“I’m afraid, Sir, you will have another fortnight on shore!”
Ac felly bu. Y’mhen y pythefnos i’r diwrnod hwnw y cefnais ar
ddoc y Bari. Yn ystod y pythefnos yna, nid o’wn yn perthyn i dir, na
dw’r, nac awyr—hyny yw, nid o’wn na phregethwr, na dïacon, nac
aelod cyffredin; a phe cyfarfyddase fy nghyfell gore’ â mi ar ’stryd
Caerdydd y dyddie hyny, dodase fi i lawr fel morwr ar dramp, neu
grimpyn yn chwilio am ’sglyfeth. A dyna oedd y drychineb: angor
llong arall oedd wedi myn’d i mewn i ystlys y llong ’ro’wn i arni, a’i
rhwygo ychydig islaw i wyneb y dw’r. Bu raid ei haner dadlwytho
mewn canlyniad, a’i gyru i’r ysbyty am bedwar diwrnod-ar-ddeg cyn
iddi dd’od yn ffit i ail gychwyn.
A dyna o’wn yn hala ato, ys d’wedai un o garitors Brutus: pe bai
rywfaint o ofergoeledd yn llechu dan fy ngwasgod, mi wnaethwn fy
meddwl i fyny’n ddi-droi-yn-ol taw bys Rhaglunieth oedd yma yn
dangos y ffordd yn ol i Dreorci, ac nad oedd ond dyfrllyd fedd yn
f’aros, os mai mỳnu myn’d i’r môr a wnawn. Ond mentrodd un
f’adgofio o’r hen air sy’n d’we’yd nad oes boddi i fod ar y dyn ga’dd
ei eni i’w grogi! Wel, meddwn, os taw felly y mae, fe gaiff “Dafydd
Jones” y siawns gynta’.
Ac am saith o’r gloch, yr unfed-ar-hugen o’r mis bach, yn y
flwyddyn un fil naw cant ac un, aethom allan gyda’r llanw i’r Sianel
ac i’r nos.
PENOD II.
*
Y LLONG A’I PHRESWYLWYR.
WYRACH yr hoffech wybod am y tŷ yr o’wn yn byw ynddo’r
pythefnos nesa’, a’r dynion oedd yno’n byw hefo mi.
Nid yw mesuriad y llong genyf wrth law, tae fater am hyny; ond
yr oedd yn llai na llong deithwyr, ac yn fwy na llong bysgota.
Ymddangose’n fwy yn y doc nag ar ganol y dwr, ond yr oedd o
faintioli mwy na’r cyffredin o’r dosbarth y perthyne iddo. Yr oedd
golwg anghynes arni pan yn cael ei llwytho, a llwch glo dros ei
gwyneb i gyd. Ofnwn taw golwg anghynes fydde arnaf fine hefyd os
taw dyna oedd ei chyflwr i fod hyd ddiwedd y daith. Pan es i gysgu’r
noson gynta’, yr oedd can ddued a’r glöyn; pan ddeffröes y bore’
cynta’, yr oedd can wyned a’r carlwm. Ni weles erioed drawsffurfiad
mor fawr mewn amser mor fyr, oddigerth ar gyflwr ambell i ddyn.
Heblaw’r dec isa’, yr hwn a ymestyne o’r naill ben i’r llall o honi,
yr oedd iddi dri dec ucha’,—un o’r tu blaen, un o’r tu ol, ac un yn y
canol. O dan y dec blaen yr oedd ystafelloedd y criw a’r tanwyr, lle y
bwytaent ac yr yfent, a’r lle hefyd y cysgent,—trindod o
ddyledswydde ag oedd yn gofyn cymwysdere neillduol i’w cyflawni
yn y fan hono. O dan y dec canol yr oedd cabane’r peirianwyr, dri o
honynt; a dyma’r lle gore ar y llong i fyn’d drwy rai dyledswydde
cynil yn gysurus (megis eillio, er engraff), am mai dyma lle teimlid ei
hysgogiade leia’ o bobman. O dan y dec ol yr oedd ystafelloedd y
cadben, y ddau brif swyddog, a’r ’stiward. Dyma hefyd lle’r oedd
f’ystafell ine, a’r prif gaban lle’r eisteddem i fwyta. Ar y dec canol yr
oedd ystafell breifat arall, lle bydde’r cadben a’r swyddogion yn
marcio taith y llestr wrth y siart. Mewn cysylltiad â hon yr oedd
ystafell yr olwyn. Yr olwyn sy’n llywodraethu ysgogiade’r llestr, ac yr
oedd ei gofal ar bedwar o ddynion, y rhai a gymerent ddwyawr bob
un i’w throi. Uwchben y darn yma drachefn yr oedd y bont, yr hon a
gyraedde o ochr i ochr ar draws y llestr yn ei man lletaf. Ar y bont y
bydde’r gwyliedydd yn cerdded yn ol a blaen dros ei orie gwylio; ac
un o’m prif ddifyrion oedd bod gydag e’ am awr ar noson dywell,
pan fydde’r môr yn arw a’r llong yn siglo. O’r dec canol i’r dec ol yr
oedd pont arall yn rhedeg gyda hyd y llestr, yr hon a arbede ini fyn’d
i’r dec isa’ pan fydde arnom eisie croesi o’r naill i’r llall.
Ar y dec isa’ yr oedd y goginfa, y fynedfa i’r peiriandy
odditanodd, a’r agorfeydd i’r seleri lle cedwid y cargo. Yr wyf
y’meddwl imi dd’we’yd eisoes taw llwyth o lo oedd genym y’myn’d
allan, ac at y wybodeth yna yr wyf yn ychwanegu taw llwyth o
wynwyn a hade cotwm oedd genym yn dychwelyd. Yr oedd y glo i
lawr yn y seleri o’r golwg, ond yr oedd y wynwyn yn ffetaneidie
uchel ar dop yr agorfeydd y sonies am danynt, ac yn cyraedd i fyny
hyd at yr ail bont a rede gyda hyd y llestr. Nid yw’r swyddogion a’r
criw y’malio fawr am lwyth o’r natur yma, am ei fod yn ’chwanegu at
risg y llong ar dywydd garw.
Heb imi fyn’d ar ol y manylion, dyna i chwi ryw syniad am
adeiladeth y caban coed y bum yn byw ynddo am y pythefnos nesa’.
Bellach at ei breswylwyr.
Dim ond un Cymro oedd ar y bwrdd heblaw fy hunan, a than y
bwrdd y bydde hwnw gan amla’, oblegid peirianydd ydoedd. Safe’n
drydydd yn y dosbarth. Hon oedd ei fordeth gynta’, ac yr oedd yn
wrthrych cyfleus iawn i’r bechgyn erill hogi eu tafode arno. Cymere
arno wybod y cwbl ond sut i siarad Cymraeg, a mi ges allan cyn
diwedd y daith taw siarad Cymraeg oedd y peth gore’ all’sai wneud.
Pan aethom allan, yr oedd mwy o wynt, a nwy, a chalch ynddo na
dim arall; erbyn ini gyredd Môr y Canoldir, yr oedd ei ddillad lawer
rhy fach iddo.
Brodor o Ogledd Lloegr oedd y prif beirianwr, a’r mwyaf anodd ei
ddeall yn siarad o neb a glywes erioed. Heblaw fod ei dafodieth yn
flêr, a’i lais yn debyg i ffliwt wedi cael anwyd, yr oedd ganddo dric
annymunol o siarad yn ei wddf, yr hyn a’i gwnai’n boenus i wrando
arno. D’wedais “Ië” wrtho ganweth pan ddylaswn dd’we’yd “Nage,” a
“Do” pan ddylaswn dd’we’yd “Naddo;” eto mi gredaf fy mod yn llai
cyfrifol am hyny nag am lawer o bethe.
ALECSANDRIA.
Bachgen o’r un gym’dogeth oedd yr ail beirianwr, a chân ar ei
wefus drwy’r dydd. Gwydde am holl ganeuon y dawnsdai, am holl
ffraethebion y chwareudai, ac am holl ’streuon y clybie. Clywes ef yn
canu mewn cyngherdde droion yn Alecsandria, ac yr oedd yn
debycach o gael encôr na neb. Yr oedd ei lais yn uwch na llais pawb,
a’i chwerthiniad i’w glywed mewn cystadleueth a’r elfene. Bu’n help i
godi f’ysbryd i sgoroedd o weithie, pan y bygythie fyn’d yn is na
f’esgidie.
O dan y rhai hyn ceid y tanwyr,—y dosbarth isa’u moese ar y
llestr. Cy’d ag y bu’r llong yn Alecsandria, ni wnaeth y llabystied hyn
ond meddwi, ymladd â’r heddgeidwed, a threulio nosweithie dan glo.
Mi weles un o honynt yn taro’r prif swyddog yn ei fedd’dod, ac yn
cael ei osod mewn gefyne am hynny. Bu’n gorwedd ar y dec am
orie’n rhwym wrth un o’r ateg-byst, yn engraff truenus o “dwyll
pechod.” Codasant eu harian i gyd cyn cychwyn ar y fordaith adre’, a
gwariasant bob dime goch ar wirod, a myglys, a dirwyon; ac erbyn
i’r llong gyredd Lloegr, nid oedd ganddynt ffyrling ar eu helw, na
hatling i ymgroesi.
Adwaenid y saer y’naturiol iawn wrth yr enw Chips. Brodor o
Norwe oedd efe, ac yn ddyn trigen oed. Un o garitors y llong oedd y
saer. Yr wyf yn cofio ei fod yn gwneud rhywbeth i’w hystlys ar
ddiwrnod pur frochus, pan y llithrodd tòu o gryn faintioli drosodd,
gan ei daro yn ei wyneb nes syrthio o hono’n fflechtan ar y dec.
Tybiwyd am foment ei fod wedi ei ladd neu ei foddi; a phan ddaeth
ato’i hun, y peth cynta’ dd’wedodd oedd ei fod wedi llyncu llon’d ei
safn o hoelion!
“Gwell iti lyncu’r mwrthwl eto, Chips,” ebe’r ail beirianwr.
Mae’n debyg fod yr hoelion ganddo yn ei safn, yn ol arfer seiri,
pan ddaeth y dòn, a chan na welwyd yr un o honynt wed’yn, nid
gwaith anodd oedd credu iddynt oll fyn’d i lawr ei gorn gwddf. Byth
ar ol hynny, ’doedd dim a yrai Chips allan o’i bwyll yn waeth na
gofyn iddo wrth basio am fenthyg yehydig hoelion. Tebycach fyddech
o gael y morthwyl at eich pen, oni phrysurech eich camre.
D’wedais fod gofal yr olwyn ar bedwar o ddynion, y rhai a
gymerent ddwyawr bob un i’w throi. Llanc o Gernyw oedd un, ac
ymddangose mor anystwyth ei symudiade a phe buase wedi bod yn
labro hyd y funud hono. Cydwladwr i Chips oedd y llall, yr hwn oedd
y’ngafel y declein. Am y ddau arall, mae genyf chwedl i’w hadrodd,
os deil eich amynedd heb fethu.
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Quaternary Foraminifera Of The Caspianblack Seamediterranean Corridors Volume 1 Valentina Yanko

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  • 5.
    Quaternary Foraminifera of theCaspian-Black Sea- Mediterranean Corridors: Volume1 ValentinaYanko Ponto-Caspian Foraminifera
  • 6.
    Quaternary Foraminifera ofthe Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1
  • 7.
    Valentina Yanko Quaternary Foraminifera ofthe Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1 Ponto-Caspian Foraminifera
  • 8.
    Valentina Yanko Department ofPhysical, Marine Geology and Paleontology Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University Odessa, Ukraine Avalon Institute of Applied Science Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada ISBN 978-3-031-12373-3 ISBN 978-3-031-12374-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Map in the middle - The Ponto-Caspian- Mediterranean Corridor Around the map foraminiferal species: 1. Canalifera parkerae Yanko, 1974, 2. Ammonia ammoniformis (d’Orbigny), 1826, 3. Ammobaculites ponticus Mikhalevich, 1968, 4. Bolivina pseudoplicata Heron-Allen et Earland, 1930, 5. Elphidium ponticum Dolgopolskaja and Pauli, 1931, 6. Haynesina anglica (Murray), 1965, 7. Bulimina aculeata d’Orbigny, 1826, 8. Eggerelloides scaber (Williamson, 1858) This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
  • 9.
    Foreword The region knownas the Ponto-Caspian includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, and the Aral Sea and connecting straits. While this region has been well studied and described in the Russian and Ukrainian literature, the details are much less widely known by scientists without access to or knowledge of those works. Valentina Yanko has produced a synthesis of a vast array of research, including her own and that of her collaborators over the past 50 years. While this work focuses on the Pleistocene through Recent foraminiferal assemblages, the implications extend far beyond to interpretation of basin closures throughout geologic history. And such basin closures include some of the major hydrocarbon sources on Earth, including those of the Ponto-Caspian region. Many lessons from geologic history appear in this extensive and detailed description of the repeated cycles of marine flooding and freshening across a series of related, sometimes interconnected, marginal seas. The pioneering micropaleontologists in the region that began in the last decades of the nineteenth century are mentioned in Chap. 1. More importantly, detailed investigations and descriptions of foraminiferal species and assemblages exploded in the mid-twentieth century. With the author’s career beginning in the mid-1970s, she was incredibly productive as a member of the second generation of mid-late twentieth century researchers who were not simply describing the assemblages but also applying their findings to understanding the geologic history of this series of basins. When glaciation reduced sea levels worldwide, basins freshened and oligohaline species prevailed. Subsequent transgressions allowed marine- influenced taxa to migrate stepwise through the basins. The series of basins are described in Chap. 2, including their geographic locations as well as bathymetric and hydrographic features, while touching upon their geologic histories. The environmental tragedy of the Aral Sea is lamented. Formerly the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea has largely dried up, eliminating a once prosperous fishing industry resulting in economic hardship and human suffering. In the second part of Chap. 2, the author describes the sources of the more than 30 thousand sediment samples that were summarized and evaluated in subsequent chapters. The numerous organizations that supported collections and the many scientists whose works are utilized in the synthesis are recognized and documented. Samples were collected from grab samples, gravity cores, piston cores, multi cores, box cores, boreholes, and outcrops, including Quaternary stratotypes. Sites and habitats sampled included limans, lagoons, river deltas, shelves, and continental slopes. Analyses included lithological as well as foraminiferal analyses, and often analyses of other shelled biota, especially mollusks. The discussion of foraminiferal taxonomy in Chap. 3 elaborates on the theme that is absolutely central to the overall work. Taxonomy is a specialty in which Prof. Yanko has superb expertise that she has honed throughout her career. As she emphasizes at the beginning of the chapter, precise taxonomic identification is absolutely essential to high-resolution stratigraphy and paleoenvironmental analyses. And understanding the basic characteristics and biological limitations inherent to higher taxa, specifically the major orders, provides vast insight into where lower taxa originated, and why they were able to proliferate, or were unsuited to thrive, across the euryhaline habitats of these marginal seas. v
  • 10.
    vi Foreword Prof. Yankoemphasizes that recognition and consistent understanding of the characteristics of each species at all stages of ontogeny are essential to precise identification. She reminds the reader that a species is composed of many populations that can differ from each other to some degree as a result of founder effects or adaptations to local conditions. If individuals from these populations differ consistently in diagnostic morphological characteristics and are geographi- cally isolated, they are considered as subspecies. Given the frequent isolation of the individual basins through the Pleistocene and Holocene, local adaptations were inevitable, allowing differences to emerge that are recognized as subspecies. This extensive analysis on the relatively recent geologic history of this series of basins provides insight into both the widely recognized process of allopatric speciation and somewhat lesser-known process of reticulate evolution, whereby taxa separated for millennia can diverge somewhat, but when populations are reconnected, new assortments and adaptations can emerge. Thus, reconnection of the basins has allowed subsequent mixing of those subspecies and occurrences in environmental conditions to which they have adapted. For example, salinity can be incredibly variable locally within limans, deltas, and lagoons, on seasonal and interannual time scales, or even daily or weekly cycles depending upon weather. Prof. Yanko recognizes 173 lower taxa (i.e., species, subspecies, some of them in open nomenclature) of Quaternary benthic foraminifera across the Ponto-Caspian basins, providing an excellent review of the principles of taxonomic classifica- tion of the orders that occur there. With the essentials of foraminiferal taxonomy established, in Chap. 4 the modern basins are described in regional detail. For example, the Black Sea study sites are subdivided into 14 regions, with environmental conditions described and the lower taxa identified for each. This chapter provides detailed lessons in regional geography, as well as both regional and sometimes obscure terminology. The reader will want to keep bookmarks on location maps and detailed facies, bathymetric and salinity definitions. The reader should also keep in mind that this chapter describes something like 70 years of research on thousands of samples in places that many readers may be unfamiliar. Don’t be discouraged, the details are here for historical reference and to define and support syntheses to come both later in the chapter and in the volume. The fossil assemblages of the Pleistocene and Holocene are presented and interpreted in substantial detail in Chap. 5. The chapter begins by discussing the diversity of stratigraphic schemes used by researchers who have carried out investigations in the region. Prof. Yanko provides the plethora of terminology essential to understand the regional geology and interpretations of the glacial-interglacial (i.e., regressive/ transgressive) cycles of the Ponto- Caspian Corridor. Biostratigraphic diagnoses of fossil foraminiferal assemblages were based on the appearance of new species/subspecies that characterized an assemblage. Eco-stratigraphy and paleo-events are recognized lithologically and from changes in dominance of foraminiferal, Molluscan, and other fossil taxa, in particular, with their relationships to salinity. This chapter represents a synthesis of multidisciplinary studies of an enormous amount of geological material and, as such, should be a treasure for anyone interested in the region or in the level of detail available from a synthesis of data on a series of interconnected basins during times of sea-level fluctuations. Another potential readership should be anthropologists and archaeologists studying this important corridor of migrations of hominid populations. The paleogeographic origins of the Pleistocene foraminiferal taxa of the Ponto-Caspian basins, and an exploration of why certain taxa were able to thrive in the individual basins in response to opening and closing of corridors, are explored in Chap. 6. Among the species and subspecies, about 40% are calcareous members of the order Rotaliida, nearly a quarter are Miliolida, and about 20% are Lagenida. The other roughly 15% include calcareous Buliminida and members of three agglutinated orders. The foraminiferal species and subspecies found in the Caspian are overwhelmingly endemics (88%), with a few cosmopolitan species that are known to inhabit brackish environments. More than half the species and subspecies found in Caspian are agglutinated. Thus, the Caspian fauna represent descendants of Tethyan taxa that
  • 11.
    have diverged inisolation. That abundance of endemic species could provide outstanding material for molecular-genetic and morphological comparisons of the endemic species with their likely closest Tethyan relatives with outstanding potential for addressing both rates and degrees of divergence. This is just one small example of the wealth of future studies for which the amazing details documented in this book could provide impetus. In contrast, the species and subspecies found in the Black Sea region (Pont) are predominantly Mediterranean immigrants (83%), with endemics and Caspian immigrants accounting for most of the remainder at less than 10% each. Foreword vii Prof. Yanko documents eight major waves of foraminiferal migration into the Black Sea from the Mediterranean, corresponding to major glacio-eustatic sea-level transgression events. The fourth wave brought 52 lower taxa, many of which are not still found, likely indicating higher salinities than presently occur in the Black Sea. A distinctive feature of the faunas is the predominance of the Ammoniidae-Elphidiidae shelf genera. All Pontic foraminifera are either shallow-dwelling or descendants of shallow-dwelling taxa, reflecting the shallow nature of the straights that connected the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. The influence of anthropogenic pollution—freshwater input that results in low and variable salinities and natural methane emissions— is summarized in Chap. 7, providing examples of applications of meiobenthos, especially foraminifera, to studies of both naturally occurring stresses and those associated with human activities. This chapter uses results from three sets of cruises that sampled more than 240 stations on the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea. A major advantage of studying foraminifera is that their tests are commonly preserved in sediment. And, in studies of environmental stresses, morphological anomalies are commonly seen in the tests of the foraminifera that lived and grew under stressful conditions. Pyritization of tests is another stress indicator. Ammonia tepida, A. compacta, A. ammoniformis, Canalifera parkerae, and Porosononion martkobi ponticus are taxa that can survive in polluted or otherwise stressed environments on the Black Sea shelf, and their tests most frequently exhibit morphological anomalies or pyritization. Chapter 8 represents a volume on its own! Taxonomic descriptions are provided for a vast majority of the genera, species, and subspecies encountered in the region. Morphological descriptions include scanning electron micrographs, statements regarding variability, and comparisons with similar taxa. In most cases, ecological settings and known distributions in the region are also provided. Thus, this chapter will provide a treasure trove of information for others studying modern and Quaternary-fossil foraminifera in this region. This comprehensive presentation and synthesis of the foraminiferal faunas of the Ponto- Caspian region is encyclopedic. The book will be an essential resource for anyone working on the foraminifera, meiobenthos, ecology, paleoecology, biostratigraphy, and Quaternary history of this region. Ultimately, even more valuable may be the potential insights and future studies that readers of this work, or of individual chapters, may envision within the region or far from it, either geographically or in geologic time. It is my great pleasure to introduce this book. I am in awe of the detailed information from thousands of samples from her own work and that of many other researchers. I am even more impressed by the syntheses and ecostratigraphic interpretations, and the potential for this work to inspire a diverse array of future investigations, ranging from molecular and morphological evolutionary studies of the development of endemic species, to detailed investigation of closing basins in the Permo-Carboniferous, to many other possibilities that are far beyond my imagination. College of Marine Science University of South Florida St Petersburg, FL, USA e-mail: pmuller@usf.edu Pamela Hallock
  • 12.
    Preface In these prefatoryparagraphs, the author presents essential information that includes the background for the creation of this book, the process by which it came to be, and appreciative words for those who made this publication possible. The study area known as the Ponto-Caspian includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea (currently dried up), and connecting straits. The Black Sea, with a maximum depth of 2212 m, is the easternmost of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean basin and the most isolated sea of the modern Global Ocean. The Sea of Azov, with depth up to 14 m, is connected to the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait, which is 45 km long, 4.5 km wide, and up to 6 m deep. The shallowness of the strait results in limited water exchange between the two basins. The Bosporus Strait meanders along its 35 km in length and 0.7–3.5 km in width. It is 35.8 m deep, on average, with a few elongate potholes (about 110 m in depth each) on the bottom. Carrying 5–10 times more water flow than the Kerch Strait, waterflow within the strait is stratified and bidirectional, resembling salt-wedge estuarine circulation. Limited transport of low density, lower-salinity (average 18 psu) water from the Black Sea flows southward; while the dominant transport is subsurface, flowing northward, carrying more saline (average 38 psu), denser seawater from the Sea of Marmara into the Black Sea. The Black Sea exhibits the standard oceanic provinces of continental shelf, slope, and abyssal plain. The extensive continental shelf accounts for 25% of the sea area; the isobath 200 m is commonly taken as the shelf boundary. The sea was formed at the end of the Mesozoic as a back-arc basin. The details and taphonomic conditions of the Black Sea are unusual. It is the world’s largest anoxic (oxygen-free) marine basin. Its strongly stratified water column possesses (1) a thin, well-oxygenated surface layer (20–30 m) with low salinity and warm temperatures; (2) a low-oxygen (suboxic) transition layer (30–150 m); and (3) a thick bottom layer of colder, denser, and more saline water lacking oxygen but high in sulfides. The Caspian Sea is completely isolated from the World Ocean and thus is technically an endorheic lake. It is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf and is very shallow, with an average depth of only 5–6 m; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume. The Middle and Southern Caspian account for 33% and 66% of the total water volume, respectively. The Aral Sea was also an endorheic lake; lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up by the 2010s. UNESCO added the historical documents concerning the collapse of the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a unique resource to study this “environmental tragedy.” The pioneering micropaleontologists in the region began their work in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Detailed investigations and descriptions of foraminiferal species and assemblages exploded in the mid-twentieth century. Since the mid-1970s, the author of this book has extensively studied taxonomy, ecology, paleoecology, paleogeography, and biostra- tigraphy of the Ponto-Caspian region, specializing in benthic foraminifera. This book contains an introduction, eight chapters, a conclusions section, and an extensive reference list for each chapter, many of which were published in regional languages, and as such are not well known in the west. The Ponto-Caspian Quaternary benthic foraminifera are ix
  • 13.
    represented by 7orders, 35 families, 66 genera, 173 species (some in open nomenclature), and subspecies (i.e., lower taxa). Of the 173, 123 lower taxa inhabit the Black and Caspian Seas today. This in-depth study of benthic foraminifera provides invaluable data on taxonomy of benthic foraminifera, sea level, and salinity changes as well as pollution monitoring and contouring methane reservoirs under the sea bottom. The 107 figures present regional maps, data analyses, and other essential information. The 36 plates that present SEM images of foraminifera include images to illustrate descriptions of all species and subspecies of forami- nifera found by the author in the Ponto-Caspian region. The coverage encompasses both terrestrial and underwater areas, and a broad approach ranging from geological subjects to environmental applications. x Preface Odessa, Ukraine Valentina Yanko
  • 14.
    Introduction This monograph iswritten on the basis of the long-lasting study of the late Quaternary benthic foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian region (e.g., Yanko 1974, 1989, 1990; Yanko-Hombach 2007; Yanko and Kondariuk 2020). The region is defined here as the large geographical area covering (from west to east) the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the ancient Manych Outlet, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, their coasts, and connecting straits. This Pionto-Caspian is of a strategic importance not only for the Caspian (Republic of Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan) and Black Sea (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey) countries but also for at least 17 other countries, which share a drainage basin of the Ponto-Caspian Region that is one-third the size of the European continent. The Ponto-Caspian region acts as a paleoenvironmental amplifier and as a sensitive recorder for climatic events where variations in sea level, hydrological regime, and coastline migration are especially pronounced due to its geographical location and semi-isolation from the open ocean (e.g., Fedorov 1978; Yanko 1990). It also provides a linkage between the marine and continental realms. This region is among the basins, which have been cited in literature as having conditions suitable for natural gas hydrate reserves that are increasingly being consid- ered as a potential energy resource (Kvenvolden 1993). Lately, this region has spurred a tremendous international interest as a possible place where the biblical story of the Great Flood (Ryan et al. 1997, 2003; Chepalyga 2007) originated, encouraging a new round of controversial research on paleoenvironmental reconstructions, e.g., the hydrological regime in connecting straits, transition from a lacustrine to a marine environment, an influence of the Black Sea outflow on deposition of the Eastern Mediterranean sapropels as well as past/present/ future adaptation of humans to environmental change (Yanko-Hombach 2007; Yanko- Hombach 2007; Yanko-Hombach et al. 2014). During the Late Quaternary, the Black Sea was repeatedly isolated from the Mediterranean Sea by sea-level fluctuations. Geographical location and periodic connection of the Black Sea either with the Mediterranean or Caspian seas predetermined specific hydrogeological regimes in the basin, making it an excellent paleoenvir- onmental amplifier and a sensitive recorder of climatic events All this makes the Ponto-Caspian region and its foraminiferal assemblages unique, both from the modern and fossil perspectives, and also in the context of its tectonic history and sea-level changes in isolated and semi isolated from the World Ocean basins. Because these basins are quite different from more oceanic regions, the author is dealing with more subtle distinctions with respect to salinities and estuarine conditions, and therefore at the end of the volume, there is a glossary of terms that includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea (currently dried up), and connecting straits. The potential of benthic foraminifera for paleoenvironmental reconstructions is well known. These hard-shelled microorganisms have tremendous taxonomic diversity enabling a wide range of biological reactions to varied environmental factors, including many species-specific responses to ecological conditions (Fursenko 1978), which adds to their potential as index species for monitoring sea-level and salinity changes. They have very short reproductive cycles—6 months to 1 year (Boltovskoy 1964)—and rapid growth (Walton 1964) that makes even their community structure particularly responsive to environmental change. Their tests are xi
  • 15.
    References xii References readily preservedin the sediments and can record evidence of environmental variability through time. They are small and abundant compared to other larger, hard-shelled taxa (such as mollusks), making them particularly easy to recover in statistically significant numbers (Yanko et al. 1999). The main goal of the work is taxonomy and ecology of the Late Quaternary benthic foraminifera with hard tests and their application for biostratigraphy, environmental reconstructions, and paleogeography of the Ponto-Caspian region. To reach the goal the following objectives have been set: (1) detailed description of recent and Late Quaternary benthic foraminifera from bottom sediments and coastal outcrops of the Ponto-Caspian region in order to establish their taxonomic classification; (2) determination of the ecological preferences for all lower taxa in order to supplement the classification with ecological/paleo- ecological information; (3) determination of biofacial types among the Late Quaternary foraminiferal assemblages as well as their migration in space and time; (4) based on objectives 1–3 high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the Ponto-Caspian region supplemented whenever possible by isotopic and OSL records. Boltovskoy E (1964) Seasonal occurrences of some living foraminifera in Puerto Deseado’ (Patagonia, Argentina). ICES J Mar Sci 29(2):136–145 Chepalyga AL (2007) The late glacial great flood in the Ponto-Caspian basin. In: Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert AS, Panin N, Dolukhanov PM (eds) The Black Sea flood question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Dordrecht, Springer, pp 119–148 Fedorov PV (1978) Pleistotsen Ponto-Kaspiya (The Pleistocene of the Ponto- Caspian). Moscow, Nauka (in Russian) Fursenko AV (1978) Vvedenie v izuchenie foraminifer (Introduction to the study of Foraminifera). Trudy Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki 391. Novosibirsk, Nauka, 242 pp (in Russian) Kvenvolden KA (1993) Gas hydrates-geological perspective and global change. Rev Geophys 31(2):173–187 Ryan WBF, Pitman WC III, Major CO, Shimkus K, Maskalenko V, Jones GA, Dimitrov P, Görür N, Sak{nç M, Yüce H (1997) An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf. Mar Geol 138:119–126 Ryan WBF, Major CO, Lericolais G, Goldstein SL (2003) Catastrophic flooding of the Black Sea. Ann Rev Earth Planet Sci 31:525–554 Walton WR (1964) Recent foraminiferal ecology and paleoecology. In: Imbrie J, Newell ND (eds) Approaches to paleoecology, pp. 151–237 Yanko V (1974) Novye vidy bentosnykh foraminifer iz golode-novykh otlozheniy Severo-8apadnogo shelfa Chernogo morya (New species of benthic foraminifera from Holocene sediments of the north-western shelf of the Black Sea). Paleontologicheskiy Sbornik 11:24–30 (in Russian) Yanko V (1989) Quaternary Foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian Region (the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea): Taxonomy, biostratigraphy, history, ecology. Doctoral thesis. Moscow State University, two volumes, 1000 pp (in Russian) Yanko V (1990) Stratigraphy and paleogeography of marine Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of the southern seas of the USSR. Memorie della Società Geologica Italiana 44:167–187 Yanko V, Kondariuk T (2020) Origin and taxonomy of the Neopleistocene-Holocene Ponto-Caspian benthic foraminifera. Geologichnyy zhurnal 1:17–33 Yanko V, Arnold A, Parker W (1999) The effect of marine pollution on benthic foraminifera. In: Sen Gupta BK (ed) Modern Foraminifera. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic, The Netherlands, pp 217–238 Yanko-Hombach VV (2007) Controversy over Noah’s flood in the Black Sea: geological and foraminiferal evidence from the shelf. In: Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert AS, Panin N, Dolukhanov PM (eds) The Black Sea flood question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Dordrecht, Springer, pp 149–204 Yanko-Hombach V, Mudie PJ, Kadurin S, Larchenkov E (2014) Holocene marine transgression in the Black Sea: new evidence from the northwestern Black Sea shelf. Quat Int 345:100–118
  • 16.
    Acknowledgments The author hasstudied the Quaternary Ponto-Caspian foraminifera for nearly 50 years, and the results of her research are presented in a significant number of monographs and articles, many of which are published in Russian or Ukrainian. The information presented in this book represents the results of research conducted not only by the author but also by many geologists from an array of scientific and applied geological organizations who collected sediment from throughout the region. Samples for foraminiferal analysis were obtained from multiple organizations (e.g., Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences; Southern Branch of the Institute of Oceanology, USSR Academy of Sciences; Institute of Oceanology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Yuzhmorgeologiya, GeoEcoMar; Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University; Prichernomor DGRP, and some others with which the author cooperated on the contractual and/or scientific basis). The contributions of individual experts are acknowledged in the text. Here, the author expresses deep gratitude to A.K. Bogdanowicz, V.A. Krasheninnikov, N.N. Subbotina, and A.V. Fursenko, who taught the author the basics of micropaleontology at the beginning of her carrier. Prof. I.Ya. Yatsko instilled a love for foraminifera, which the author carried through her whole life and to whom she is especially grateful. All transliterations of cited sources published in languages using the Cyrillic alphabet comply with the requirements of international standards for bibliographic references according to the US Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/russian.pdf). Exceptions are the names of authors, which we have left in their own preferred transliterations, as well as geographical names as presented most commonly in the majority of English papers. The author also is deeply grateful to the following individuals: Prof. Pamela Hallock from University of South Florida, USA, for editing the English text, providing extremely valuable comments, and composing the Foreword for this book; Prof. Ronald Martin, Delaware Univer- sity, USA, and Prof. Lyudmila Vorobyeva, the Institute of Marine Biology of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, for review of the book and their very useful comments; Dr. Irena Motnenko (the author’s daughter) for drawing of the inner structure of foraminiferal tests (Chap. 3) and some other pictures; Dr. Revinder Sidhu, Microscopy and Materials Characterization Facility Manager (Manitoba Institute for Materials, University of Manitoba, Canada) for her help in imaging of microfauna by SEM (Paleontological plates 1–36); and the managing team at Springer, especially Mr. Solomon George, Project Co-ordinator (Books) for Springer Nature, for his guidance and patience in awaiting delivery of the finished manuscript. This book is a contribution to IGCP 521 “Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor during the last 30 ky: sea-level change and human adaptation”; INQUA 0501 “Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor during the last 30 ka: sea-level change and human adaptive strategies”; IGCP 610 “From the Caspian to Mediterranean: environmental change and human response during the quaternary”; the Russian–Ukrainian project No. Φ28/428-2009 “The Northwestern Black Sea region and global climate change: environmental evolution during the last 20 ka and forecast for the 21st century” sponsored by the State Fund for Fundamental Research, Ukraine; “Study the interaction between nature and human society in the north-western Black Sea coast during the late Pleistocene and Holocene,” “To study the xiii
  • 17.
    xiv Acknowledgments processes ofmethane formation and spatial distribution of methane in the Black Sea and to theoretically justify its influence on eco- and geosystems of the basin,” “Development of forecast criteria for searching for hydrocarbons in the Black Sea on the basis of the theory of fluidogenesis”; all four sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine; COST Action TD0902 SPLASHCOS project “Submerged prehistoric archaeology and landscapes of the continental shelf ”; EU-FP6 project HERMES “Hotspot ecosystems research on the margins of European seas”; EU BLACK SEA ERA.NET-WAPCOAST project “Water pollution prevention options for coastal zones and tourist areas: Application to Danube Delta front area”; INCO-COPERNICUS “Pollution by oil and herbicide of the Black Sea: Novel technologies of detection and biological impact”; EC (AVICENNE Program, AVI CT92- 0007).
  • 18.
    Abstract This volume containsa heretofore unavailable compilation of detailed information on the Ponto- Caspian foraminifera. The region as a whole consists of the remnants of the Tethys and Parathethys seaways, totaling in area a drainage basin one-third the size of the entire European continent, and is of strategic importance to the surrounding countries. Foraminifera are highly reliable paleoenvironmental indicators, ubiquitous in marine environments, and taxonomically diverse, which give them the potential for a wide range of biological responses to varied environmental factors. Their tests are readily preserved and can record evidence of environmental change through time, thus providing historical baseline data even in the absence of background studies. The book includes taxonomic descriptions for 152 species and subspe- cies (i.e., lower taxa) from the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea. For the majority of them, SEM images and descriptions, as well as data on ecology, paleoecology, distribution, location, and material, are provided. The book will be useful to specialists in the Quaternary history of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors as well as those in environmental monitoring and risk assessment. It can be used by students studying marine geology and paleontology to serve as a framework for future investigations of the paleoclimatic history of the Ponto-Caspian region. xv
  • 19.
    Contents 1 State-of-the-Art .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Foraminifera of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Caspian and Aral Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.3 Our Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.1 Study Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.2 Material and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.3 Statistical Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.4 Stratigraphic Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3.1 General Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3.2 Principles of Taxonomic Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3.3 Agglutinated Taxa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.4 Taxonomic Classification of the Order Miliolida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3.5 Taxonomic Classification of Order Lagenida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.6 Taxonomic Classification of Order Rotaliida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.6.1 Test Morphology and Accepted Terminology of Rotaliids . . . . . . . 33 3.6.2 Systematics and Genetic Interrelations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.7 Taxonomic Classification of Order Buliminida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.8 Systematics and Comparison with Other Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 4 Modern Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 4.2 Modern Foraminifera of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . . 42 4.2.1 Northwestern Deltas, Limans, and Lagoons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 4.2.2 Northwestern (Including Western Crimean) Shelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 4.2.3 Eastern Crimean Shelf, Kerch Strait, and Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . 54 4.2.4 Caucasian Shelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.2.5 Bulgarian, Southwestern, and Bosphorus Outlet Shelf . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.3 Modern Foraminifera of the Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 4.3.1 North Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 4.3.2 Middle Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 4.3.3 South Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 4.3.4 Bays and Straits of the Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.4 Modern Foraminifera of the Aral Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4.6 Lateral Rows of Modern Foraminiferal Assemblages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 4.7 Quantitative Distribution and Ecology of Benthic Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . 80 xvii
  • 20.
    xviii Contents 4.8 BionomicGroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 4.8.1 Black Sea and Sea of Azov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 4.8.2 Caspian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 4.8.3 Aral Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4.9 Ecological Classification of Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 4.10 Use of Modern Foraminifers for Bio- and Ecostratigraphy and Facies Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 5 Quaternary Bio- and Ecostratigraphy, with Elements of Paleogeography of the Ponto-Caspian Corridors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 5.2 Caspian Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 5.2.1 Eopleistocene (Apsheronian Regional Stage) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 5.2.2 Lower Neopleistocene (Bakinian Stage) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 5.2.3 Middle Neopleistocene (Urundzhikian and Gyurgyanian Stages) . . . 121 5.2.4 Upper Neopleistocene (Khazarian and Khvalynian Stages) . . . . . . . 124 5.2.5 Holocene (Novocaspian Stage) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 5.2.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 5.3 Black Sea Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 5.3.1 Eopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 5.3.2 Lower Neopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 5.3.3 Middle Neopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 5.3.4 Upper Neopleistocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 5.3.5 Holocene (ca. 10 ky BP–Present) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 5.4 Correlation of Stratigraphic Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 5.5 Pleistocene Intrusions from the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas into the Black Sea: Reconstructions Based on Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 6 Origin and Taxonomy of the Pleistocene Ponto-Caspian Benthic Foraminifera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 6.2 Caspian Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 6.3 Black Sea Region (Pont) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 6.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 7 Benthic Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Change in the Black Sea in Space and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 7.2 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress Caused by Herbicides and Oil Pollution (INCO-COPERNICUS Case Study) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 7.3 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress Caused by River Discharge (WAPCOAST Case Study) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 7.4 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress by Methane Emissions (HERMES Case Study) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 7.5 Foraminifera as Indicators of Environmental Stress on the Neopleistocene-Holocene Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 7.6 Morphological Deformities of Foraminiferal Tests as Indicators of Environmental Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 8 Systematic Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
  • 21.
    Contents xix Appendices .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 Appendix 1: Alphabetical Index to Genera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 Appendix 2: Addresses of Studied Outcrops on the Black Sea Coast . . . . . . . . . . 332 Paleontological Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Alphabetical Index to Genera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Alphabetical Index to Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
  • 22.
    About the Author Phototaken in September, 2019 during field work on the Black Sea coast Valentina Yanko Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences; Professor, Head of the Department of Physical, Marine Geology and Paleontology; Director of the Scientific and Educational Center for Geoarchaeology, Marine and Ecological Geology of the Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University; and President of the Avalon Institute of Applied Sciences, Canada. She graduated from Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University (former Odessa I.I. Mechnikov State University). Her main scientific interests include: geology, specialty marine geology; paleoecology and ecology; paleontology, specialty paleontology of invertebrates; ecological micropaleontology; foraminifera of intercontinental basins (Mediter- ranean Sea, Sea of Marmara, Black Sea, Sea of Azov, Caspian Sea, Aral Sea); foraminifera as indicators of natural and anthropogenic stress; ecotoxicology of foraminifera and their chemical defense mechanisms; marine Quaternary geology and paleoceanography; paleoclimatology; global sea-level changes; Quaternary history, paleoceanography, glacial and intraglacial epochs. xxi
  • 23.
    1 In addition to,and often in collaboration with, a variety State-of-the-Art Abstract The history of research on Ponto-Caspian Quaternary foraminifera at the end of the nineteenth century to the present is introduced. The earliest report from the Crimean region was by Pereialsvtseva (Novorossiysk.ob-va yestestvoisp 10(2):79–114 (in Russian), 1886), who noted nine species. At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Zernov (Yezhegodnik zool. muzeya AN, Sankt Petresburg 13(4):28–35 (in Russian), 1906) wrote that foraminifera are scarce in the Black Sea. In contrast, Dolgoplskaya and Pauli (Trudy Karadagskoy nauchnoy stantsii imeni T.I. Vyazemskogo 4:23–48 (in Russian), 1931) found foraminifera to be abundant and contribute a significant proportion of recent benthic assemblages. Research carried out in the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, and the Sea of Azov, as well as near the Bosphorus outlet, was conducted by researchers from the USSR, Bulgaria, Romania, and Georgia. The first data on Caspian foraminifera were presented by Ehrenberg in 1873, who reported 23 species. The earliest observations from the Aral Sea found only two species. Intensive study of taxon- omy, quantitative distribution, and ecology of live (Rose Bengal stained) foraminifera in the Caspian and Aral Seas and their comparison with recent foraminifera from other basins was carried out by Mayer (Vertikal’noye raspredeleniye foraminifer v Kaspiyskom more. In: Maev YeG (ed) Kompleksnye issledovaniya Kaspiyskogo morya 6, pp 101–107 (in Russian), 1974a, Foraminifery Kaspiyskogo i Aral’skogo morey (Foraminifera of the Caspian and Aral seas). Avtoref. Dis. kand. biol. Nauk. Moscow State University, 24 pp (in Russian), 1979b). of other researchers working in the region, the author has carried out more than 50 years of research on the taxon- omy, ecology/paleoecology, paleogeography, and biostra- tigraphy of Ponto-Caspian benthic foraminifera. This chapter introduces extensive exploration of the northwest- ern Black Sea, along the Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Caucasian shelves, as well as the northern exit of the Bosphorus Strait, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. Fossil assemblages from numer- ous Pleistocene stratotypes were studied in the coastal zone of the Ponto-Caspian region. The application of benthic foraminifera to reconstruction of sea-level change and coastline migration in regard to the Great Flood Hypotheses in the Black Sea was also investigated. Most recently, the focus has been on the use of benthic forami- nifera and other meiobenthic organisms (nematodes, ostracods) to contour reservoirs of methane stored under the seabed. Altogether, 173 benthic and 7 planktonic species and subspecies (i.e., lower taxa) have been recorded, with 18 previously reported species not found. Thirty lower taxa belong to agglutinated foraminifera; the rest are cal- careous. A vast majority of them are described, illustrated, and supplemented by the data on biostratigraphy and paleoecology in subsequent chapters. # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 V. Yanko, Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0_1 1 Keywords Ponto-Caspian · Quaternary · Benthic foraminifera · His- tory of study 1.1 Foraminifera of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov Initially, nine species (no descriptions, no pictures) of benthic foraminifera were listed by Pereialsvtseva (1886) in the Sevastopol Bay and Crimea and were cited by Ostroumov (1893) and Sovinskiy (1904). Other scientists (Zernov 1901, 1906, 1913; Andrusov 1892; Arkhangel’skiy and Strakhov 1938) just mentioned the presence of foraminifera in the Black Sea without any identification. Chishkoff (1912) found Rotalia veneta M.Sch., Polystomella strigilata d’Orb, and Quinqueloculina fusca Brady.
  • 24.
    On the Bulgarianshelf, Lepsi ( ) identified Ammodiscus incertus d’Orb and Peneriplis sp. This list was later expanded by Velkanov ( ) who identified 26 benthic species (no description, no pictures) and Velkanova ( ) who described 43 recent species (39 of them were pictured) from a water depth above 65 m. Dolgopolskaya and Pauli ( ) pictured and described ten species of live foraminifera from the Karadag Biological Station, Crimean Peninsula, providing also their ecological requirements. While Zernov ( ) considered that foraminifera are scarce in the Black Sea, Dolgopolskaya and Pauli ( ) emphasized that fora- minifera are abundant and make a significant proportion of benthic assemblages. 1931 1906 1931 1981 1957 1931 2 1 State-of-the-Art On the Romanian shelf, foraminifera were firstly men- tioned by Margineanu (1958) who calculated the percentage of Ammonia and Nonion in foraminiferal assemblages. Baĉescu and Margineanu (1959) documented the presence of a few Mediterranean species and even planktonic Globigerina bulloides (d’Orb) in this area. Macarovici et al. (1958) and Macarovici and Cehan-Jonesi (1961, 1962, 1966) described the distribution of Rose Bengal-stained foraminif- era in the surface sediments of the Romanian shelf. Among 14 benthic species, Ammonia was dominant. The highest abundance of Ammonia was discovered at a water depth of 20–45 m, salinity 15.0–16.5‰, and temperature 10 °C. On the northwestern Ukrainian shelf, Didkovskiy (1959) described three foraminiferal assemblages dominated by Ammonia beccarii (Linne) var. risilla, var. n, Nonion, and Ammonia beccarii (Linne) at a water depth of 4–48 m between the Danube Delta and Egorlitsky Bay. He documented 29 species and varieties; some of them were considered as new. No pictures and descriptions were provided for these species, bringing them into the category of nomen nudum. In 1969, Didkovskiy documented 36 spe- cies and varieties near the northern exit of the Bosphorus. Some of them, such as Florilus boueanum (d’Orbigny), were likely reworked from the Miocene. Twenty-three species and three subspecies of benthic foraminifera were documented by Morozova (1964) from the Crimean and Caucasian shelf at water depth 0–103 m. These taxa were grouped in three geographical assemblages: northeastern with dominance of Rotaliidae, Discorbiidae, and Nonionida distributed at the Caucasian shelf; northwestern with dominance of Rotaliidae, Miliolidae, and agglutinated foraminifera distributed counterclockwise from the north- western Crimea to the Danube Delta; and western assemblage distributed in the Danube Delta and dominated by Rotalia beccarii. The latter one was most impoverished compared to all others. This author noticed that the diversity of foraminif- era increases with depth due to an appearance of Lagenidae and Polymorphinidae below 59-m isobath. Mikhalevich (1968) described 27 species of benthic fora- minifera from the southern Crimean shelf. Kirienko (1979) tried to interpret warm–cold episodes in the geological sec- tion of the Bulgarian shelf using left alterations of left and right coiling of Ammonia tests. metals. The most detailed work on recent Black Sea foraminifera was published by Tufescu (1974a, b). She synthesized previ- ously obtained (1967–1974) data (Tufescu 1967, 1968a, b, 1969a, b, 1970, 1971, 1973). Based on 146 stations (depth 0.2–62 m), she described the ecology, zoogeography, and evolution of 21 species, 17 of which were pictured. Based on morphometrical analysis, she divided A. beccarii into A. beccarii sensu stricto and A. tepida. Makaveeva (1979) briefly described the quantitative dis- tribution of five Elphidium and Quinqueloculina species in the Karkinitskiy, Tendrovskiy, and Egorlitskiy Bays and northern Black Sea. She concluded that these epiphytic fora- minifera have their highest abundance (225,000 ind/m2 ) on some algae. A very preliminary study of the Sea of Azov foraminifera was performed by Didkovskiy (1958) who identified nine benthic species and concluded that foraminifera of the Sea of Azov are significantly impoverished compared to those in the Black Sea. Fossil foraminifera from the ODDP drills 379, 380, and 381 in the Black Sea were studied by Cheorghian (1978) who documented 29 benthic species (no pictures, no description) in the Miocene, Pliocene, and Quaternary sediments. He did not discover foraminifera in the postglacial sediments although reworked foraminiferal tests were present through- out as was also noticed by Khrustalev and Shcherbakov (1974) for different geological age sequences. Interestingly, the number of reworked foraminifera increased with the proportion of coarse sediments. Brief data on Quaternary foraminifera of the Kerch Strait were presented by Suprunova (1980) allowing her to divide Quaternary sediments into Drevneuxinian (Old Euxinian), Neoeuxinian (New Euxinian), Drevnechernomorian (Old Black Sea) and Novochernomorian (New Black Sea) layers. Kitovani (1971) and Barg et al. (1982) found benthic forami- nifera in the Pleistocene sediments of the Georgian and Crimean coasts, respectively. Temlekov and Mutchinova (1999) investigated the quan- titative distribution of the sublittoral benthic foraminifera from the Bulgarian Black Sea coast (the Kiten inlet) and correlated the number of Ammonia and Elphidium specimens with the water depth and grain size of sediments. The taxonomic composition and distribution of foraminif- era in the surface sediment from the Kazachya Bay, Crimea, were studied by Anikeeva (2005). Twenty species of benthic foraminifera were identified at 25 stations. Specimens of the genera Ammonia, Elphidium, and Quinqueloculina were the most common. This author failed to correlate foraminiferal distributions to certain environmental factors, e.g., heavy
  • 25.
    1.2 Caspian andAral Seas 3 However, Kravchuk (1999, 2004) discovered that in fact benthic foraminifera are excellent indicators of marine pollu- tion in the Black Sea. She identified 33 species from 19 genera and 10 families in the northwestern part of the basin. The highest number of species were Elphidiidae (8 spe- cies) and Ammonoidea (4 species). Agglutinated foraminif- era are represented by rare specimens of Ab. ponticus Mikhalevich and Di. imperspica Yanko. A decrease in the number of species and specimens as well as an increase in the proportion of morphological deformities, stunting, and pyritization of foraminifera was attributed to pollution by domestic sewage and heavy metals. Temlekov et al. (2006) provided an updated checklist of the recent foraminifera from the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. He provided a list of 107 species from 56 genera, 32 families, and 10 orders largely repeating the list of foraminifera provided by Yanko in 1989. The most common species belonging to the Ammonia, Elphidium, Cribroelphidium, and Fisurina genera were pictured in SEM. This author also provides a synecological characteristic of the foraminiferal communities inhabiting five types of sediment from the upper sublittoral (down to 20-m depth), seashore pools, and river mouths of the Bulgarian South Black Sea area, Temlekov (2008). He determined the species’ frequency of occurrence, the dominant structure, and similarity of the foraminiferal communities. Kondariuk (2018) studied the lateral distribution of mor- phological deformations in 15 foraminiferal tests from the Romanian shelf of the Black Sea in connection with the influence of the freshwater inflow of the Danube River. She emphasized the possibility of using them as indicators of river inflow influence. Some researchers studied soft foraminifera from the Black Sea (e.g., Sergeeva and Anikeeva 2018). But we never found soft foraminifera in our samples neither among recent nor fossil foraminifera and as so their description is not provided in a given monograph. 1.2 Caspian and Aral Seas The first data on the Caspian foraminifera were presented by Ehrenberg (1873) who found 23 species in the surface sediments of 132 stations located at 6–836 m water depth. Most of the species were distributed above a 25-m isobath; with depth, their number decreased to 1–2 species. At least two species (Rotalia globulosa Ehrenberg and Textularia globulosa Ehrenberg) were recognized as reworked from the Cretaceous sediments. Much later Shokhina (1937) described and pictured six benthic species. Bening (1937) documented 13 species from the Mertvyy Kultuk and Kaydak. Klenova (1956) and Popov (1955) found three recent species and plenty of reworked Cretaceous foraminifera. Gofman (1966) documented seven species of dead benthic foraminifera. Not one of the abovementioned studies contained data on the quantitative distribution of foraminifera in the Caspian Sea. There is only a short note of Klenova (1956) that 75% of foraminiferal assemblages consist of Rotalia beccarii (Linne). The Aral Sea foraminifera were studied even worse than those of the Caspian Sea. Only two species of benthic fora- minifera are known from the work of Kiaer (1906), Berg (1908), and Hülsen (1911). These species were documented from a depth of 32 m and the sandy and muddy substrata from almost freshwater of the Taldik Bay to the normal salinity of the Aral Sea (Berg 1908). An intensive study of taxonomy, quantitative distribution, and ecology of live (Rose Bengal-stained) foraminifera in the Caspian and Aral Seas and their comparison with recent foraminifera from other basins was performed by Mayer (1968, 1970, 1972, 1974a, b, 1976, 1979a, b, 1983a, b). A comparison of recent and Pliocene–Quaternary foraminifera from this region was performed by Naydina et al. (1974) and Mayer (1975). Mayer (1979b) described 18 species from the Caspian Sea, two of which, Hemisphaerammina sp. and Saccamina sp., were given in open nomenclature; two, Mi. fusca (Brady) and Tr. aguajoi (Bermudez), are well know from other basins; the rest of the species were initially described by Mayer. Eleven Caspian live in the Aral Sea (Mayer 1979b). The abundance of benthic foraminifera in the sediments of the Southern Caspian Sea from Bahnamir to Babolsar, Iran, was studied by Ghane et al. (2014). A total of five species of benthic foraminifera (A. beccarii caspica Shchedrina, El. littorale caspicus [Shokhina], Mi. fusca [Brady], Ammotium sp., and one unidentified species) were identified in the bot- tom sediments, and their distribution was correlated with environmental parameters (dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, organic matter, calcium carbonate concentration, and grain size). A study of benthic foraminifera abundance in the sediments of Southern Caspian Sea from Fereydunkenar to Babolsar was performed by Sadough et al. (2013). A multi- disciplinary case study from the southeastern flank of the Caspian Sea on sea-level changes at the end of Little Ice Age and its impacts on the avulsion of the Gorgan River was performed by Naderi Beni et al. (2014). A study of benthic foraminifera in the sediments of Southern Caspian Sea was carried out (Ghane et al. 2014). The paper describes foraminiferal species and provides a correlation of their abundance and environmental factors enabling more infor- mation on Caspian Sea ecosystem. The effect of urban pollutants on the distribution of ben- thic foraminifera in the Southern Caspian Sea was studied by Zarghami et al. (2019). The authors recognized 11 species of benthic foraminifera from 6 genera of 5 families. The
  • 26.
    d d cosmopolitan A. beccariicaspica was common in the studied area. The density of benthic foraminifera is significantly correlated with seasons, the highest density being observed in winter, and the most dense foraminifera were observed in Babolsar stations that showed a good situation for living there; hence, we can use these foraminifera as a bioindicator for pollutant area. 4 1 State-of-the-Art To the best of our knowledge, there are no publications (except ours) on the application of benthic foraminifera to the Ponto-Caspian Late Quaternary stratigraphy and paleogeography. 1.3 Our Study The taxonomy, ecology/paleoecology, paleogeography, and biostratigraphy of Ponto-Caspian benthic foraminifera have been carried out by the author of this book in the northwestern (e.g., Yanko 1973, 1974a, b, c, d, e, 1975, 1982a, b, c, d; Voskoboynikov et al. 1985; Sulimov et al. 1983; Vorobyova and Yanko 1986), Bulgarian (Yanko 1979, 1982c; Dimitrov et al. 1979), and Caucasian (Yanko et al. 1983; Yanko and Gramova 1990) and across the shelf (Yanko and Troitskaya 1987) and northern exits of the Bosphorus Strait (Yanko and Vorobyova 1991; Yanko-Hombach 2007a), the Sea of Azov (Yanko 1982d; Yanko and Aleevskaya 1982; Gudina an Yanko 1989; Yanko and Vorobyova 1990), Caspian Sea (Svitoch et al. 1992, 1997; Yanko 1989, 1990), and Mediter- ranean Sea (Yanko et al. 1994, 1998). In addition, foraminifera from numerous Pleistocene stratotypes were studied in the coastal zone of the Ponto-Caspian region (e.g., Yanko 1989, 1990; Yanko et al. 1990; Svitoch et al. 1992). The application of benthic foraminifera in the reconstruction of sea-level change and coastline migration in regard to the Great Flood Hypotheses in the Black Sea is present in Yanko-Hombach (2003, 2004, 2007a, b) and Yanko-Hombach et al. (2007, 2011, 2014). Lately, attention has been paid on the use of benthic foraminifera along with other meiobenthos organisms (nematodes, ostracods) for contouring reservoirs of methane stored under the seabed (Yanko et al. 2017; Yanko-Hombach et al. 2017; Shnyukov and Yanko 2014; Shnyukov an Yanko-Hombach 2020). Our analysis of published data developed a general list of benthic species for the Ponto-Caspian region. This list includes 183 low taxa (Yanko 1989): 88 species have pictures (e.g., Tufescu 1973, 1974b), and some of them are supported by brief (e.g., Mikhalevich 1968; Temlekov et al. 2006) or more detailed (e.g., Dolgopolskaya and Pauli 1931) description. For other species only location and some ecolog- ical remarks (e.g., Vlkanova 1981) are provided. These 88 species are considered in our study. From the rest of the 97 species, which do have neither pictures nor description, only 33 species could be identified in our material. Seventy species, e.g., Miocene Florilus boueanum (d’Orbigny) and Nubecularia novorossica (Karrer), seemed to be reworked, and together with other species in open nomenclature, e.g., Ammorginulina sp. (Baĉescu and Margineanu 1959), were excluded from our analysis. Altogether, 180 benthic and seven planktonic species and subspecies are on the list (Table 3.1). Eighteen species are absent in our material (marked by stars in the table). Thirty low taxa belong to agglutinated foraminifera, and the rest are calcareous. A vast majority of them are pictured, described, and supplemented by data on biostratigraphy and paleoecology. References Andrusov NI (1892) Nekotoryye rezul’taty ekspeditsii “Chernomortsa”. K voprosu o proiskhozhdenii serovodoroda v vodakh Chornogo morya (Some results of the “Chernomorets” expedition. To the question of the origin of hydrogen sulfide in the waters of the Black Sea). Izv.Russk.geogr.o-va 28(4):370–397 (in Russian) Anikeeva O (2005) Taxonomic composition and distribution of forami- nifera in sur- face sediment from the coastal part of Crimea (Black Sea). In: Yanko-Hombach V, Buynevich I, Chivas A et al (eds) Extended Abstracts of the First Plenary Meeting and Field Trip of IGCP-521 Project “Black Sea-Mediterranean corridor during the last 30 ky: sea level change and human adaptation”, 8–15 October 2005, Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey, pp 17–18 Arkhangel’skiy AD, Strakhov NM (1938) Geologicheskoe stroenie i istoriya razvitiya Chernogo morya (Geological structure and history of the Black Sea). Izda- tel’stvo Akademiia Nauk SSSR, Moscow, Leningrad, 237 pp (in Russia) Baĉescu M, Margineanu C (1959) Elements Mediterraneens nouveaux dans la faune de la Mer Noire, rencontres dans les eaux de Roumelie (Nord-Ouest-Bosphore). Donnees nouvelles sur le probleme du peuplement actuel de la Mer Noire. Archogr. e Limnol. Suppl.: 63–74 Barg IM, Danilov IS, Zagorodniy TG, Pasechnyy GV (1982) Stratigrafiya antropogekovykh otlozheniy shel’fa zapadnogo poberezh’ya Kryma (Stratigraphy of Anthropogecal deposits of the shelf of the western coast of Crimea). In: Nosovskiy MF (ed) Stratigrafiya kaynozoya Severnogo Prichernomor’ya i Kryma. Dnepropetrovsk, pp 65–73 (in Russian) Bening AL (1937) O planktone zalivov Mertvyy Kultuk i Kaydak (On the plankton of the bays Dead Kultuk and Kaidak). Tr. Komissii po kompleksnomu izucheniyu Kaspiyskogo morya. 1937. Vyp. 1, Ch. 1, pp 25–32 (in Russian) Berg LS (1908) Aralskoe more (Aral Sea). Opyt fiziko-geograficheskoy monografii (Experience of a physical-geographical monograph). Sankt Peterburg, 582 pp Cheorghian M (1978) Micropaleontological investigations of sediments from sites 379, 380 and 381 of leg 42 B. Init. Rep. Deep-’ Sea Dril. Proj. 42:783–797 Chishkoff G (1912) Contribution à l’étude de la Faune de la Me Noire. Animeaux récoltés sur les côtes bulgares. 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    References 5 Didkovkiy VYA(1969) Foraminifery Pribosforskogo rayona Chornogo morya (Foraminifers of the Bosphorus region of the Black Sea // Biological problems of oceanography of the southern seas). In: Vinogradov KA, Vinogradov ZA, Zaytsev YUP (eds) Biologicheskiye problemy okeanografii yuzhnykh morey. Kiev, pp 70–72 (in Ukrainian) Dimitrov PS, Shimkus KM, Govberg LI, Komarov AV, Yanko VV (1979) Obshchaya stratigraficheskaya skhema raschleneniya kolonok cheØtvertichnykh otlozheniy (General stratigraphic scheme of subdivision of columns of Quaternary sediments). In: Malovitskiy NP (ed) Geologiya i gidrologiya zapadnoy chasti Chornogo morya. Bulgarian Academy of Scinces, Sofiya, pp 93–98 (in Russian) Dolgopolskaya MA, Pauli VL (1931) Foraminifery Chornogo morya rayona Karadagskoy biologicheskoy stantsii (Foraminifera of the Black Sea in the area of the Karadag Biological Station). Trudy Karadagskoy nauchnoy stantsii imeni T.I. 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Moscow, RASKHN, 288 pp (in Russian) Temlekov BK (2008) Ecological characteristics of the foraminiferal fauna (Protozoa: Foraminifera) of the Bulgarian South Black Sea Area. Acta Zoolooica Bulgarica, Suppl. 2:275–282 Temlekov BK, Mutchinova PE (1999) About the quantative distribution of sublittoral foraminifera in the inlet of Kiten, Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Acta Zoolooica Bulgarica 51 (2/3):73–78 Temlekov BK, Golermansky VG, Todorov MT (2006) Updated check- list of the recent foraminifera from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Acta Zoolooica Bulgarica 58(1):17–36 Tufescu M (1967) Esquisse de dynamique saisonniere du elute Ammo- nia Brimmed dans la zone de ressac sur le littoral Romain. An. Univ. Bucuresti. Ser. Biol., pp 145–150 Tufescu M (1968a) Probremes de biogeographie concernant les fo-raminiferes pontiques. Rev. roum. geol. geophys. et geogr. Stir. geogr. 14(2):253–265 Tufescu M (1968b) Ammonia tepida (Cushman) (ord. Foraminifera). Some features of its variability in the Black Sea Basin. Revue Roumaine de Biologie et Zoologie 13:169–177 Tufescu M (1969a) Foraminifera of the zone of the Romanian littoral lakes, lagoons and mouths of the Danube—Sulina. Hidrobiologia 10:291–302 Tufescu M (1969b) Sur la presence de Trichochyalis aguajoi (Bermudez) dans la Mer Noire. Rev. micropaleontol 12(1):46–52 Tufescu M (1970) Problemes de boigeographic concernant les foraminiferes pontiques. Rev. roum. Geol. Geophys. Geogr, Ser. Geogr. 14(2):253–265 Tufescu M (1971) Structure topografica a populatiilor de foraminifere din apele litorale romanesti. Dari de seams 57(3):103–113 Tufescu M (1973) Les associations de foraminiferes du Nord-Quest de la Mer Noire. Rev Espanola de Micropaleontol 5(1):15–32 Tufescu M (1974a) The dual origin of the Black Sea foraminifera. Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie 59(3):353–365 Tufescu M (1974b) Populatiile de foraminifere din apele litorale romanesti. Edit. Acad. Rep. Soc. Romania. Bucuresti, 75 pp Velkanov A (1957) Katalog na nashate chernomorska fauna. Tr. Morsk. Biologist. st. Varna 19:1–61 Vlkanova IKH (1981) Retsentni foraminiferi (Rhizopodea, Foramіnіferida) pred blgarskiya bryag na Cherno more. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 18:3–14 Vorobyova L, Yanko VV (1986) O raspredelenii sovremennykh fora- minifer v severo-zapadnoy chasti Chornogo morya (On the distribu- tion of modern foraminifers in the northwestern part of the Black Sea). Zoological zhurnal 1(8):I250–1254 (in Russian) Voskoboynikov VM, Krakovskiy BI, Konnikov EG, Yanko VV (1985) Litologiya chetvertichnykh otlozheniy: Tekstury donnykh otlozheniy (Lithology of Quaternary sediments: textures of the bot- tom sediments). In: Shnyukov E F (ed) Geologiya shelfa USSR: Litologiya. Naukova Dumka, Kiev, pp 93–130 (in Russian) Yanko VV (1973) Foraminifery dzhemetinskikh otlozheniy severo- zapadnoy pasti Chornogo morya. 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    References 7 Yanko VV(1974a) Pozdnechetvertichnyye foraminifery severo- zapadnogo shel’fa Chornogo morya (Late Quaternary foraminifera of the North-West Shelf of the Black). PhD thesis, Odessa I. I. Mechnikov State University, 227 pp (in Russian) Yanko V (1974b) Stratigrafiya i nekotoryye paleogeograficheskiye osobennosti razvitiya severo-zapadnogo shel’fa Chornogo morya v pozdnetsetvertichnoye vremya po bentosnym foraminiferam (Stra- tigraphy and some paleogeographical features of the development of the north-western shelf of the Black Sea in the Late Quaternary according to benthic foraminifers). In: Veklich MF et al (ed) Paleogeografiya i inzhenernaya geologiya (pozdniy kaynozoy). Kiev, pp 93–96 (in Russian) Yanko V (1974c) Pozdnechetvertichnyye foraminifery severo- zapadnogo shel’fa Chornogo morya (Late Quaternary foraminifers of the Northwestern shelf of the Black Sea). Byull. MOIP. Otd. Geol. 5:149–150 (in Russian) Yanko V (1974d) Deyaki dani pro foraminifery donnykh vidkladiv okremykh’ dilyanok Pivnichno-3akhidnoho ta Kavkaz’koho shel’fu Chornoho morya (Some data on foraminifera donnik deposits of separate parts of the North-Eastern and Caucasian shelf of the Black Sea). In: Babynets AE (ed) ta in. Geologiya uzberezhzhya i dna Chornoho ta Azovs0 kogo moriv u mezhakh URSR 7:39–43 (in Ukrainian) Yanko V (1974e) Novyye vidy bentosnykh foraminifer iz golotsenovykh otlozheniy Severo-Zapadnogo shel’fa Chornogo morya (New species of benthic foraminifers from the Holocene deposits of the north-western shelf of the Black Sea). Paleontolo- gicheskiy sbornik 1(11):24–30 (in Russian) Yanko V (1975) Foraminifery sovremennykh donnykh otlozheniy severoØzapadnoy akvatorii Chornogo morya (Foraminifers of mod- ern bottom sediments of the northwestern water area of the Black Sea). In: Fursenko AV (ed) Obraz zhizni i zakonomernosti rasseleniya sovremennoy i iskopayemoy mikrofauny. Tr. IGiG; Vyp.333, pp 73–79 (in Russian) Yanko V (1979) Stratigrafiya i geochronologoya donnykh otlozheniy: Stratigraficheskie kompleksy bentocnykh foraminifer. Obschaya stratigraficheskaya skhema (Stratigraphy and geochronology of the bottom sediments: stratigraphic complexes of benthic foraminifera. General stratigraphic scheme). In: Malovitskiy Y (ed) Geology and hydrology of the Western Part of the Black Sea. Ac. Sc. Bulg., Sofia, pp 82–95 (in Russian) Yanko V (1982a) Paleoekologiya pozdnetsetvertichnykh foraminifer severo-zapadnogo shel’fa Chornogo morya i ikh znacheniye dlya vyyasneniya usloviy obrazovaniya osadkov (Paleoecology of Late Quaternary foraminifers of the Northwestern shelf of the Black Sea and their significance for elucidating the conditions for the formation of sediments). Moscow, Deposited in VINITI 720–81, pp 131–137 (in Russian) Yanko V (1982b) Stratigrafiya verkhnechetvertichnikh otlozheniy severo-zapadnogo shel’fa Chernogo morya po bentosnim foraminiferam (Stratigraphy of the upper Quaternary sediments of the Black Sea north-western shelf based on benthic foraminifera). In: Zhuze AP (ed) Morskaya mikropaleontologiya. Nauka, Moscow, pp 126–131 (in Russian) Yanko V (1982c) Sistematicheskiy sostav i kolichestvennoye rasØpredeleniye foraminifer v poverkhnostnom sloye donnykh osadkov Bolgarskogo shel’fa Chornogo morya (Systematic compo- sition and quantitative distribution of foraminifers in the surface layer of bottom sediments of the Bulgarian shelf of the Black Sea). Moscow, Deposited in VINITI 720-82, pp 73–78 (in Russian) Yanko V (1982d) Stratigrafiya donnykh otlozheniy Chornogo i Azovskogo morey po bentosnym foraminiferam (Stratigraphy of bottom sediments of the Black and Azov Seas according to benthic foraminifers). Abstracts of the XI International Congress INQUA. Moscow, pp 314–315 (in Russian) Yanko V (1989) Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian Region (the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea): taxonomy, biostratigraphy, history, ecology. Doctoral thesis, Moscow State University, two volumes, 1000 pp (in Russian) Yanko V (1990) Stratigraphy and paleogeography of marine Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of the southern seas of the USSR. Memorie Società Geologica Italiana 44:167–187 Yanko-Hombach V (2003) “Noah’s flood” and the late Quaternary history of the Black Sea and its adjacent basins: a critical overview of the flood hypotheses. GSA topical session T104 “Noah’s flood” and the Late Quaternary geological and archaeological history of the Black Sea and adjacent basins. Geological Society of America, September 2003. Abstracts with Programs 35(6):460 Yanko-Hombach V (2004) The Black Sea controversy in light of the geological and foraminiferal evidence. 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Ekologia morya 39:47–50 (in Russian) Yanko V, Berdnikova VG, Katzuk AV (1983) Stratigraphiya donnykh otlozheniy Kavkazskogo shelfa Chernogo morya po molluskam, foraminiferam i ostracodam (Startigraphy of the bottom sediments of the Black Sea Caucasian shelf on mollusks, foraminifera and ostracods). VINITI, no 2117–83, pp 45–50 (in Russian) Yanko V, Frolov VT, Motnenko IV (1990) Foraminifery i litologiya stratotipicheskogo gorizonta (antropogen Kerchenskogo poluostrova) (Foraminifera and lithology of the stratotypical horizon (Anthropogene of the Kerch peninsula)). Bulletin of the Moscow Society of the Investigators of Nature, Geology 65(3):85–97 (in Russian) Yanko V, Kronfeld A, Flexer A (1994) The response of benthic forami- nifera to various pollution sources: implications for pollution moni- toring. 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    8 1 State-of-the-Art YankoV, Kravchuk A, Kulakova I (2017) Meiobentos myetanovykh vykhodov Chyernogo morya (Meiobenthos of methane outlets of the Black Sea). Phenix, Odessa, 241 pp (in Russian) Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert A, Dolukhanov P (2007) Critical overview of the Flood Hypotheses in the Black Sea in light of geological, paleontological, and archaeological evidence. Quat Int 167–168:91– 113 Yanko-Hombach V, Mudie P, Gilbert AS (2011) Was the Black Sea catastrophically flooded during the post-glacial? Geological evi- dence and archaeological impacts. In: Benjamin J, Bonsall C, Pickard DRC, Fischer A (eds) Underwater archaeology and the submerged prehistory of Europe. Oxbow Books, pp 245–262 Yanko-Hombach V, Mudie PJ, Kadurin S, Larchenkov E (2014) Holo- cene marine transgression in the Black Sea: new evidence from the northwestern Black Sea shelf. Quat Int 345:100–118 Yanko-Hombach V, Schnyukov E, Pasynkov A et al (2017) Late Pleistocene-Holocene environmental factors defining the Azov- Black Sea Basin, and the identification of potential sample areas for Seabed Prehistoric Site prospecting and landscape exploration on the Black Sea Continental Shelf. In: Flemming F et al (eds) Submerged landscapes of the European Continental Shelf: Quater- nary paleoenvironments. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp 431–478 Zarghami M, Al-Maliky THY, Nazarhaghighi F, Sohrabi Mollayousefi M (2019) Effect of urban pollutants on distribution of benthic foraminifera in the Southern of Caspian Sea. In: Proceedings of the International Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Zernov SA (1901) Plankton Azovskogo morya i yego limanov (Plank- ton of the Sea of Azov and its estuaries). Yezhegodnik zool. muzeya AN, Sankt Petresburg 6:38–I26 (in Russian) Zernov SA (1906) Penilia shamacheri Rich. v Chornom more v Karkinitskom zalive (Penilia shamacheri in the Karkinitian Bay, Black Sea). Yezhegodnik zool. muzeya AN, Sankt Petresburg 13(4):28–35 (in Russian) Zernov SA (1913) K voprosu ob izuchenii zhizni Chornogo morya (On the issue of studying the life of the Black Sea). Seria VIII, Phiz.-mat. otd., vol XXXII, no 1, 299 pp (in Russian)
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    2 Study Area, Material,and Methods Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the study area known as the Ponto-Caspian, which includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea (currently dried up), and connecting straits. The Black Sea, with a maximum depth of 2212 m, is the easternmost of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean basin and can be consid- ered as the most isolated sea of the modern Global Ocean. The Sea of Azov is connected to the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait. On average, the level of the Black Sea is 7–11 cm lower than that of the Sea of Azov and 30 cm higher than that of the Sea of Marmara. The Black Sea exhibits the standard oceanic provinces of the continental shelf, slope, and abyssal plain. The extensive continental shelf accounts for 25% of the sea area; the 200-m isobath is commonly taken as the shelf boundary of the Global Ocean. The bottom relief is largely smooth due to the distribution of sediment discharge from major lowland European rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, and the Southern Bug, that together discharge 56.8 million tons of sediments annually. The average bottom-water salinity of the Black Sea (17 psu) is only half that of the Eastern (39 psu, practical salinity units) and Western (34 psu) Mediterranean. Salin- ity varies spatially, temporally, and with depth, in associ- ation with freshwater discharge into the basin and the influence of subsurface inflow from the Sea of Marmara with salinity of ~35 psu. The maximum salinity of the Sea of Azov is 13 psu. The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water, variously classed as an isolated lake without an outflow (i.e., an endorheic basin). It lies at the junction of Europe and Asia, with the Caucasus Mountains to the west and the steppes of Central Asia to the east. The Caspian Sea, like the Black Sea, is a remnant of the ancient Paratethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and falling sea level. The Caspian Sea is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf and is very shallow, with an average depth of only 5–6 m; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume. More than 130 rivers flow into the Caspian, with the Volga River being the largest. The Northern Caspian water is almost fresh, becoming more brackish toward the south. The sea is most saline off the Iranian shore, where the watershed contributes little inflow. Currently, the mean salinity of the Caspian is 12.8 psu on average, varying from 1 psu near the Volga outlet to a high of 200 psu in the Kara-Bogaz-Gol, where intense evaporation occurs. The Aral Sea was also an endorheic lake; lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up by the 2010s. Formerly it was the fourth largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 . The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters.” In the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Kerch Strait, sediment samples have been collected since mid-1970s using various research vessels. In limans (marshes) and river deltas, the samples were collected from small vessels by hand corer or diving. As a rule, the sampling campaigns took place in May–June. Samples for foraminiferal analysis were obtained from multiple organizations of the Black Sea countries. In total, approx- imately 32,000 samples from 1500 grabs, multicorers, box corers, 4300 gravity/piston cores, and 56 boreholes (up to 40 m in length) were investigated. The samples were obtained in limans, lagoons, river deltas, shelf, and conti- nental slope of the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov, and the Caspian Sea. The total length of investigated sediment cores reached 8000 m. Marine research was supplemented by the study of 112 Quaternary outcrops including stratotypes located on the Crimean and # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 V. Yanko, Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0_2 9
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    Kerch Peninsula, Caucasian,and northwestern coast of the Caspian Sea. At most marine stations, environmental (e.g., salinity, depth, temperature, dissolved oxygen) and foraminiferal parameters were measured. The total assemblage, includ- ing live (stained) and dead (empty) tests of foraminifera, was determined and expressed as the number of tests (abundance) per 50 g of dry sediment. To identify possible interrelations among foraminiferal characteristics and environmental parameters, a range of statistical methods were applied. The inner structure of foraminiferal tests and their wall ultrastructure were studied in 320 thin sections and 120 artificial models. All species of benthic foraminifera were morphologically examined, taxonomically identified, and SEM imaged. Particular attention was paid to morphological deformities of foraminiferal tests as indicators of environmental stress. The collections of benthic foraminifera from the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Sea of Azov are stored in the Paleontological Museum of Odessa National University, Ukraine. The stratigraphic work follows the Russian subdivision of the Quaternary System (Zhamoida, Stratigr Geol Correl, 12:321–330, 2004) into the Eopleistocene (1.8–0.8 Ma), Neopleistocene (0.8–0.01 Ma), and Holo- cene (0.01–0.0 Ma). The resulting high-resolution stratig- raphy and geochronology of the Late Quaternary (Neopleistocene and Holocene) sediments are based on the combination of bio- and ecostratigraphic criteria supplemented by absolute dating. Biostratigraphic criteria include precise taxonomic analysis of benthic foraminifera to trace species evolution and to discover species indicators for certain time intervals. Due to the shortness of the studied time interval, the application of these criteria is limited and so is supplemented by ecostratigraphic criteria. 10 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods Keywords Black Sea · Sea of Azov · Caspian Sea · Aral Sea · Drillholes · Outcrops 2.1 Study Area The study area is known as the Ponto-Caspian, which includes the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea (currently dried up), and connecting straits (Fig. 2.1). The Black Sea is the easternmost of the seas of the Atlan- tic Ocean basin. Considering the ratio of the sea volume to the summary area of the cross sections of all its straits (which is 0.04 km2 for the Bosphorus and 0.02 km2 for the Kerch Strait) as a measure of isolation of a sea basin, then the Black Sea can be considered the most isolated sea of the modern Global Ocean (Zubov 1956). Its maximum length (along 42 290 N lat) and width are 1148 km and 611 km, respectively. Its surface area (excluding estuaries, such as the Dnieper-Bug liman—liman is a local term for ancient estuaries in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov) and its volume are about 416,790 km2 and 535,430 km3 , respectively, and the maximum depth is 2212 m (Ivanov and Belokopytov 2013). The Sea of Azov is connected to the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait and has an area of 39,000 km2 and a volume of 290 km3 . The maximum length, width, and depth of the Sea of Azov are 360 km, 180 km, and 14 m, respectively. On average, the level of the Black Sea is 7–11 cm lower than that of the Sea of Azov and 30 cm higher than that of the Sea of Marmara. The details and taphonomic conditions of the Black Sea are unusual. It is the world’s largest anoxic (oxygen-free) marine basin. Its strongly stratified water column possesses (1) a thin, well-oxygenated surface layer (20–30 m) with low salinity and warm temperatures, (2) a low-oxygen (suboxic) transition layer (30–150 m), and (3) a thick bottom layer of colder, denser, and more saline water lacking oxygen but high in sulfides. The Black Sea lies within the Anatolian sector of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic system, located between the Eurasian plate to the north and the African-Arabian plates to the south. Global plate models (DeMets et al. 1990) and recent space geodetic measurements (Smith et al. 1994; Reilinger et al. 1997) indicate that, in the surrounding region, the northward-moving African and Arabian plates are collid- ing with the Eurasian plate. From this collision, the Anatolian block is moving westward with a rotation pole located approximately to the north of the Sinai Peninsula (Tari et al. 2000). The northward movement of the Arabian plate and westward escape of the Anatolian block along the North and East Anatolian faults have been accompanied by several episodes of extension and shortening since the Permian (Yilmaz 1997; Robertson et al. 2004), as can be seen in seismic-reflection data (McKenzie 1972; McClusky et al. 2000). The Black Sea exhibits the standard oceanic provinces of the continental shelf, slope, and abyssal plain (Fig. 2.2). The extensive continental shelf accounts for 25% of the sea area; the 200-m isobath is commonly taken as the shelf boundary of the Global Ocean. The northwestern shelf extends 220 km outward and occupies 16% of the sea area (68,390 km2 ) and 0.7% of the water volume (3555 km3 ) between the Chersonesus and Kaliakra capes. In the flattened and gently sloping part of the shelf adjacent to the shore, depths are 30–40 m, and the bottom slope is 1–2 . Its steep- ness increases toward the shelf break to 10–12 . Against the flat plain of the shelf, several large, shallow paleo-river valleys are visible in Fig. 2.2, separated by low underwater
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    hills (Ivanov andBelokopytov 2013). The bottom relief is largely smooth due to the distribution of sediment discharge provided by major lowland European rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, and Southern Bug, that together discharge 56.8 million tons of sediments annually (Panin and Jipa 2002). No known expressions of active tectonic movements have influenced the ancient shoreline positions and deposition of sediments in any appreciable way. 2.1 Study Area 11 Fig. 2.1 The Ponto-Caspian. Manych Outlet (currently Manych Depression in red) presumably connected the Caspian and Black Seas at 18 ka BP to 10 ka BP The other, less extensive shelf areas of the Black Sea include the coastal zone of Bulgaria and western Turkey from Cape Kaliakra to the city of Ereğli (shelf width up to 50 km), the Kerch–Taman shelf (shelf width up to 50 km), the central Anatolian coast from Cape Kerempe to the city of Giresun (shelf width up to 35 km), the southern Crimean coast between capes Chersonesus and Ai-Todor (shelf width up to 30 km), and the Gudauta Bank in the vicinity of Ochamchira town (shelf width up 20 km) (Ivanov and Belokopytov 2013). Narrow shelves with widths of several kilometers are located along the Caucasian and Anatolian coasts, as well as along the southern Crimean coast from Yalta to Cape Meganom. Their slopes are considerably steeper compared to the broader shelves, ranging from 5–6 to 30 . The shelf break lies at depths from 100 to 200 m, and the slope is 1–2 . The depth of the shelf break is close to 100 m, compared to areas with broader shelves where the break can exceed 200 m. The predominantly flat bottom of the Sea of Azov descends gradually to the depression at its center. At the bottom, there are a few positive relief forms, the largest of them being the Pischana Bank. The continental slope descends down to 1600–1900 m of water depth with a con- siderable gradient from 11 to 13 , sometimes reaching 38 in the regions along the southern Crimean and Turkish coasts. The surface of the continental slope is complicated with blocks of the Earth’s crust that often give it a graduated profile, revealing underwater canyons of different origins. They can begin in the coastal zone at depths of 10–15 m and extend as deep as 1600 m. These canyons are the most important route for the transfer of sedimentary material from the coast to the abyssal depression of the Black Sea (Fig. 2.2). In the deepest part of the canyons, at depths of 1600–1900 m, sedimentary material forms extensive cones. Individual cones can coalesce to form the continental subslope. Thus, the morphogenesis of the slope is directly linked to selective erosion and denudation of rocks with different physical and mechanical properties. Erosive and denudation activities in the canyons caused the emergence of huge underwater amphitheaters forming deepwater fans and plumes of terrige- nous sediments on the footslope. The abyssal plain is bounded by the 2000-m isobaths and occupies about 35% of the total sea area. It is a relatively flat, accumulative plain with a slight slope to the south. The bottom of the abyssal basin is characterized by hilly relief; slope angles vary from 0 to 1 . According to echo-sounding surveys, significantly large features of submarine relief are absent (Fig. 2.2). Deposits covering the abyssal plain form
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    ¼ 11 material-genetic types.Six types are shallow, and five are deep water. Between all types of deposits, there is a continu- ous transfer, conditioned by gradual change in grain size and composition. The mean rate of accumulation at the bottom of the central abyssal depression is 30–40 mm/kyr. 12 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods Fig. 2.2 Digital high-resolution map of relief. Modified after Bagrov paleovalleys. Yellow cylinders gas seeps. The map was compiled et al. 2012. 1–24 canyons: (1) Dunaisky, (2) Dniestrovsky, (3) Peleokalanchaksky, (4) Donuslavsky, (5) Al’minsky, (6) Kachinsy, (7) Forossky, (8) Yaltinsky, (9) Khapkhal’sky, (10) Meganomsky, (11) Kubansky, (12) Novorossiysky, (13) Tuapsinsky, (14) Sochinsky, (15) Sukhumsky, (16) Rioniisky, (17) Batumsky, (18) Trabzonsky, (19) Ordossky, (20) Samsunsky, (21) Kysyl-Irmansky, (22) Sakar’iaksky, (23) Bosphorsky, and (24) Burgazsky. Red, blue, and yellow triangles ¼ mud volcanoes reliably detected, discovered based on geophysical data, and expected, respectively. Blue lines river ¼ based on results of digitizing bathymetric maps of different scales (1: 50,000, 1:100,000, 1:200,000, 1:500,000, 1:1,125,000) produced by Gosgidrografiya USSR. The Crimean shelf and slope, as well as the southern part of the northwestern shelf and slope, were adjusted based on the results of our own sonar and hydroacoustic soundings obtained during marine expeditions on R/Vs Kiev, Professor Vodyanitsky, Mikhail Lomonosov, Ichthyander, and Vernadsky. Reproduced with permission from the Research Center of Sustainable Development, Ukraine. (From Yanko-Hombach et al. 2017, their Fig. 16.14) Today, the Bosphorus Strait (Figs. 2.1 and 2.2) is the only passage for exchange of water and organisms between the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara. This zigzagging strait is about 35 km in length, 0.7–3.5 km in width, and 35.8 m deep, on average, with a few elongate potholes (about 110 m in depth each) on the bottom. The strait possesses two sills, one in the north at a water depth of 59 m and one in the south at a water depth of 34 m, each located about 3 km from the corresponding entrance to the strait. The two directions of water flow within the strait overlap each other: the northward underflow (inflow) from the Sea of Marmara has an average salinity of 38 psu and a velocity of 5–15 cm/s, and the southward overflow (outflow) from the Black Sea has an average salinity of 18 psu and a velocity of 10–30 cm/s. Due to the sills, the interface between the two flow directions rises from 50 m at the northern end to 20 m at the southern end. The underflow is initiated by the difference in water density between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara; the pressure gradient pushes against the Black Sea and powers the underflow. The outflow is initiated by two main factors: (1) the 30-cm elevation of the Black Sea surface above that of the Sea of Marmara, which, in turn, is 5–27 cm above the level of the northern Aegean Sea and (2) the positive balance of the Black Sea, where precipitation (575 km3 /year) exceeds evaporation (350 km3 /year), produc- ing a discharge of about 600 km3 of brackish water annually (Yanko-Hombach 2007a).
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    2.2 Material andMethods 13 The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov (Figs. 2.1 and 2.2) and is 45 km long, 4.5 km wide, and up to 6 m deep. The shallowness of the strait results in reduced water exchange between the two basins, which is five to ten times smaller than that of the Bosphorus. The Black Sea average bottom water salinity (17 psu) is only half that of the Eastern (39 psu) and Western (34 psu) Mediterranean. The use of “psu” (practical salinity units) instead of the former ‰ is explained in Yanko-Hombach et al. (2013). Salinity varies spatially, temporally, and with depth, in association with freshwater discharge into the basin and the influence of subsurface inflow from the Sea of Marmara with salinity of ~35 psu. Surface salinity ranges from 1 to 3 psu in the Danube delta to 26.2 psu in the Bosphorus outlet area. The maximum salinity of the Sea of Azov is 13 psu. The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water, variously classed as an isolated lake without an out- flow (i.e., an endorheic basin). It lies at the junction of Europe and Asia, with the Caucasus Mountains to the west and the steppes of Central Asia to the east. The sea is bordered by Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, Turkmenistan to the southeast, and Kazakhstan to the northeast. The Caspian Sea, like the Black Sea, is a remnant of the ancient Paratethys Sea. Thus, the Caspian Sea is underlain by oceanic basalt and not by continental granitic rock. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level. The Caspian Sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2 (excluding the Gara-Bogaz-Gol lagoon) and a volume of 78,200 km3 . The lake has a north–south orientation and consists of two deep basins that occupy its central and south- ern areas leading to both spatial and depth differences in temperature, salinity, and ecology. The Caspian Sea spreads out over nearly 1200 km from north to south, with an average width of 320 km. With associated wetlands, it covers a region of around 386,400 km2 and its surface is about 27 m below sea level. The Caspian Sea is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The northern–middle boundary is the Mangyshlak Threshold, which runs through Chechen Island and Cape Tiub-Karagan. The middle–southern boundary is the Apsheron Threshold, a sill of tectonic origin between the Eurasian continent and an oceanic remnant that runs through Zhiloi Island and Cape Kuuli. Differences among the three regions are dramatic. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf and is very shallow, with an average depth of only 5–6 m; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume. The Northern Caspian freezes in the winter, and in the coldest winters, ice forms in the south as well. The sea floor deepens toward the Middle Caspian, where the average depth is 190 m. The Southern Caspian is the deepest, with oceanic depths of over 1000 m. The Middle and Southern Caspian account for 33% and 66% of the total water volume, respectively. More than 130 rivers flow into the Caspian, with the Volga River being the largest. The Northern Caspian water is almost fresh, becoming more brackish toward the south. The sea is most saline off the Iranian shore, where the watershed contributes little inflow. Currently, the mean salin- ity of the Caspian is 12.8 psu on average, varying from 1 psu near the Volga outlet to a high of 200 psu in the Kara-Bogaz- Gol, where intense evaporation occurs. In the open sea, the vertical distribution of salinity is markedly uniform; from the surface to the bottom it increases by only 0.1–0.2 psu. Caspian waters differ chemically from typical ocean waters and resembles other evaporative lake waters in having higher concentrations of calcium and magnesium cations, and sul- fate and carbonate cations, and lower chloride content. The Aral Sea was also an endorheic lake; lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan it began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up by the 2010s. Formerly it was the fourth largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 . The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters” (Daily Telegraph 2010). The region’s once-prosperous fishing industry has been devastated, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with consequential serious public health problems. UNESCO added the historical documents concerning the collapse of the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a unique resource to study this “environmental tragedy.” 2.2 Material and Methods In the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Kerch Strait and the Caspian Sea sediment samples have been collected since the mid-1970s using various research vessels, including the R/V Professor, R/V Akademik, R/V Antares, R/V Vladimir Parshin, and R/V Mare Nigrum. In limans (marshes) and river deltas, the samples were collected from small vessels by hand corer and/or diving. As a rule, the sampling campaigns took place in May– June (e.g., Yanko 1979, 1989, 1990; Yanko and Troitskaya 1987; Yanko and Gramova 1990; Yanko-Hombach 2007a; Yanko-Hombach et al. 2014, 2017; Yanko et al. 2019; Yanko and Kondariuk 2020). Samples for foraminiferal analysis were obtained from multiple organizations (e.g., Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences; Southern Branch of the Insti- tute of Oceanology, USSR Academy of Sciences; Institute of Oceanology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Yuzhmorgeologiya, GeoEcoMar; Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University; Prichernomor DGRP M.V. Lmonosov Moscow State University and some others with which the author cooperated on the contractual and/or scientific basis). In this regard, the following scientists, V. M. Voskoboynikov,
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    d A. Yu. Glebov,V. I. Dmitrienko, Ya A. Izmailov, G. I. Karmishina, V. A. Karpov, E. G. Konnikov, E. M. Mayer, I. V. Pogrebnyak, E. F. Shnyukov, A. A. Svitoch, G. G. Tkachenko, T. S. Troitskaya, and K. M. Shimkus, must be mentioned, with deep gratitude to all. The location maps of the studied materials are provided in Yanko (1989, 1990) an Yanko-Hombach et al. (2014, 2017), as well as in Figs. 2.3 and 2.4. 14 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods At the majority of the sampling stations, salinity, temper- ature, pH, and DO of bottom water were taken using the Neil Brown Instrument Systems (CTD) with a General Oceanic rosette equipped with 6–11 Niskin bottles and elec- tronic sensors, as described in Yanko et al. (1998) and Yanko-Hombach et al. (2017). In addition, in some areas (e.g., Romanian shelf), additional hydrological parameters were measured: conductivity (U), transparency (Tr), oxygen saturation index (SI), and oxygen-reduction potential (Eh) later normalized to standard pH ¼ 7 (for building the Purbae diagram). Transparency was measured by Secchi disk. Although salinity based on conductivity measurements are now considered to be unitless (e.g., https://unesdoc. unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000065031), salinity data reported in this book were taken by a variety of methods, including conductivity and refractometry, and were originally reported as ‰ or psu. For readers who may be unfamiliar with recent recommendations, the author will use psu when reporting or discussing salinity. Concentrations of phosphates (РО4 3 ) and dissolved silica (SiO2) in the water column were calcu- lated with the help of the molybdovanadate method by acid persulfate digestion (HASH equipment); the concentration of CaCO3 was measured by titration. For the calculation of total carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N), the ground samples from the superficial (0–1 cm) sediment layer col- lected by a multicorer were analyzed using a CNS elemental analyzer Carlo Erba NA 1500 and gas chromatography. Organic carbon (Corg) was calculated after threefold removal of inorganic carbon. The analyses were performed at the Institute of Biochemistry and Marine Chemistry of the Hamburg University in Germany (Yanko-Hombach et al. 2017). Fig. 2.3 Sketch of geological materials obtained in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and their coasts and studied by foraminiferal analysis The grain-size analysis of the superficial (0–2 cm) sedi- ment layer was performed by sieving and elutriation methods described in Logvinenko and Sergeeva (1986). Based on the results, the median diameter (Md) and coefficient of sorting
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    56 boreholes (upto 40 m in length) were investigated. It should be noted that the method of sampling is very impor- tant. Some authors recommend not to use grabs for sampling because “grab samplers create a strong bowwave when they touch the ground. Furthermore, grabs may only scrape the surface, distort the structure of the underlying sediments, and often do not close accurately. A large part of the sample is washed out when the grab is hoisted through the water (So) were calculated for each sample. Cores were split and the working half was examined in the uppermost 2 cm of each 10-cm interval of the sediment column. Some of the gravity/piston cores were examined in 2-cm intervals (e.g., Core 1136 in Yanko-Hombach 2007a, here Fig. 8) to provide high-resolution bio- and ecostratigraphy. 2.2 Material and Methods 15 Fig. 2.4 Sketch of geological materials obtained in the Caspian Sea and its coast and studied by foraminiferal analysis In total, approximately 32,000 samples from 1500 grabs, multicorers, box corers, 4300 gravity/piston cores, and
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    column, and anintact sediment surface is rarely preserved” (Schönfeld et al. 2012, 4). This is not always correct and cannot be recommended without exceptions. The yield of a sample very much depends on the grab construction, service- ability of the equipment, and the experience of the working team. In our case, all samples retained their undisturbed structure and were covered (in the delta front and partially in the prodelta) by an undisturbed thin (1 cm) layer of semiliquid and finely dispersed clayey material. For example, comparison of foraminiferal results in grab and multicorer samples recovered from the Romanian shelf (see Sect. 4.1.5) demonstrated similarity in their taxonomic composition. Moreover, grab samples contained extremely fragile thin- walled tests of La. vulgaris and Et. deplanata, which were absent in the multicorer samples. Their absence can be explained by the much smaller amount of sediment material in the multicorer samples (compared to the grab samples) available for the study. The amount of sediment is crucially important for basins such as the Black Sea, where foraminiferal faunas are greatly impoverished compared to basins with normal oceanic salinity. There are only 123 living species in the Black Sea, while in the neighboring Mediterra- nean Sea, 580 species of foraminifera have been identified (Cimerman and Langer 1991; Langer 2008). For this reason, when possible we preferred to use grab samples for foraminiferal analysis to obtain larger samples and therefore more foraminiferal specimens. 16 2 Study Area, Material, and Methods The samples were obtained in limans, lagoons, river deltas, shelf, and continental slope of the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov, and the Caspian Sea. The total length of investigated sediment cores reached 8000 m. Marine research was supplemented by the study of 112 Qua- ternary outcrops including stratotypes located on the Crimean and Kerch Peninsula (e.g., Yanko et al. 1990) and Caucasian (Yanko and Gramova 1990) and northwestern coast of the Caspian Sea (e.g., Svitoch et al. 1992). At most marine stations, the total assemblage, including live (stained) and dead (empty) tests of foraminifera, was determined and expressed as the number of tests (abundance) per 50 g of dry sediment as described in Yanko and Troitskaya (1987), Yanko et al. (1998), and Yanko-Hombach et al. (2017). For foraminiferal analysis, the sediment samples were collected from the superficial (0–2 cm) undisturbed sedi- ment column. Sediments were soaked in rose Bengal buffered with seawater for 48 h and, after that, washed onboard by seawater through a 63-μm sieve, dried, packed in special containers, and transferred to the laboratory. Samples obtained by a multicorer were stored in 4% formalin solution buffered with seawater in a proportion of 3:1 and 20 g of Na2B4O7 per liter and transferred to the laboratory where they were treated in a manner similar to the grab samples. We report total assemblage because (1) the scarcity of living specimens did not allow a relevant statistical study of their distribution, (2) the presence of living specimens among all identified species indicated that they likely live in the study area and therefore their empty tests are autochthonous, and (3) the total assemblage better characterizes the seasonal population dynamics (Debenay et al. 2001). Large samples were randomly split with a splitter into subsamples. Then they were soaked and washed in distilled water and passed through a 63-m mesh sieve. Live foraminifera were studied in wet samples equivalent to 50 g of dry sediment mass. When- ever possible, at least 300 specimens were picked by hand under a binocular microscope. In samples with low numbers of specimens, all tests encountered were picked. Broken foraminiferal tests, fragments, and old tests (recrystallized, worn down, filled with sediments) were considered to be reworked and excluded from the analysis. Fossil foraminifera were studied in samples that were dried at room temperature to avoid destruction of agglutinated specimens. Dried samples were split with a microsplitter to avoid sample bias; about 300 fossil forami- nifera were picked by hand (flotation in CCl4 was sometimes used) and counted for statistical analyses. The total numbers of foraminifera (abundance) were calculated in dry samples of 50 g. For each species in each sample, the relative abun- dance (C) and species occurrence (SO) were calculated and expressed as a percentage. A lithological analysis of the sediments from outcrops and drillings was often supplemented by determination of Corg, CaCO3, etc. as described in Yanko et al. (1998) and Yanko- Hombach et al. (2017). Geomechanical properties (e.g., den- sity, bulk density, water content or moisture) and sediment structures were evaluated as described in Voskoboynikov et al. (1985) and Konikov (1992, 2007). Conventional radio- carbon dating and other methods of absolute geochronology (e.g., 230 Th/U) of the sediments and mollusk shells were performed at various Russian (e.g., Dodonov et al. 2000; Arslanov et al. 2002) and Ukrainian (e.g., Semenenko and Kovalyukh 1973). A list of 579 radiocarbon datings are available in appendices 1 and 2 in Yanko-Hombach (2007b). The inner structure of foraminiferal tests and their wall ultrastructure were studied in 320 thin sections and 120 artifi- cial models. All species of benthic foraminifera were mor- phologically examined, taxonomically identified, and SEM imaged. A cross section and models of foraminiferal tests were performed for many species of Elphidium and some other taxa to define their taxonomic position as described in Hansen and Lykke-Andersen (1976). According to their abundance, foraminifera were divided into dominant (50% of a given assemblage) and accessory species. According to their ecological preferences, foraminif- era were divided into oligohaline (1–5 psu), strictoeuryhaline (11–26 psu), polyhaline (18–26 psu), euryhaline (1–26 psu), shallow-dwelling (0–30 m), relatively deep-dwelling (31–70 m), and deep-dwelling (71–220 m) species (Yanko and Troitskaya 1987; Yanko 1989, 1990).
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    2.3 Statistical Treatment17 Particular attention was paid to morphological deformities of foraminiferal tests as indicators of environmental stress. In fossil foraminiferal tests they have been noted by researchers since the last century (e.g., Carpenter 1856; Rhumbler 1911; Bogdanowicz 1952, 1960, 1971; Pflum and Frerichs 1976). In recent years, reports of deformities have become increas- ingly more common. Deformities have been linked to a number of environmental factors, such as (1) changes in temperature and reduced or elevated salinity, which also affects the size of foraminifera; (2) the lack or overabundance of food, which causes aberrant growth and affects the size of foraminifera; (3) the type of substrate, which affects the outline and shape of foraminiferal tests; (4) low dissolved oxygen content, which may create dwarfed, thin-walled, less ornamented and aberrant forms; (5) insufficient light, which may affect the size of foraminifera; (6) and pollution of marine environment (Yanko et al. 1999). The percentage of deformed foraminifera has been reported to increase dramat- ically in polluted areas (e.g., Lidz 1965) where foraminifera display a wide variety of deformities, including extreme compression, double apertures, twisted coiling, aberrant chamber shape, and protuberances. Bresler and Yanko (1995), using sulfaflavine fluorescence and chlortetracycline fluorescence, distinguished morphological deformities caused by mechanical damage from those caused by patho- logical morphogenesis. Noted that the UNESCO Practical Salinity Scale of 1978 (PSS78) is recommended for use in preference to parts per thousand (‰). The PSS defines salinity in terms of a conduc- tivity ratio and so is dimensionless. On the PSS, normal- marine salinity is generally in the range 30–40, while brack- ish seas/waters have salinity in the range 0.5–12. Approxi- mately equivalent values expressed in ppt are 30–50‰ (open sea) and 0.5–30‰ (brackish sea) (Mudie et al. 2011). We use psu (practical salinity unit) in this document. The collections of benthic foraminifera from the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Sea of Azov are stored in the Paleon- tological Museum of Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National Uni- versity, Ukraine. 2.3 Statistical Treatment To identify possible interrelations between foraminiferal characteristics and environmental parameters, cluster, corre- lation, factor, and multidimensional scaling analyses were applied using the “Statistica 10” package. For Q-mode cluster analysis, Ward’s method was used to optimize the minimum variance within clusters. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used as a measure of similarity. Factor analysis of hydro- logical parameters was applied using the method of principal components followed by the varimax orthogonal-rotation procedure (varimax normalized). Correlations between parameters were considered as significant at p 0.05 and 95% confidence limits. For fossil assemblages, the residue obtained by CCl4 flotation was weighed; a portion of 0.02 g was taken for the analysis where the number of foraminiferal specimens of each species ( f ) was calculated using the equation f ¼ kn where n ¼ number of specimens for each low taxon in 0.02-g residue, g ¼ weight of the total residue, and k ¼ g/0.02. An 11-key medical counter was used to speed up the count which is especially convenient with low taxonomic diversity. For live (Bengal Rose-stained) foraminifera that have usually much lower quantity, quartering was not usually used, and all live specimens were counted. The total number of foraminifera (F) in the sample was calculated using quotation F ¼ f1 + f2 +. . . .fn. The concen- tration (c) of each species per sample was calculated using the equation: c ¼ f 100% F The average concentration (C) of each lower taxon per area/stratigraphic unit, which defines a role of the species in the assemblage, was calculated using the following: C ¼ c1 þ c2 þ c3 . . . þ cn N or C ¼ F1 100 F where N is the number of samples. The spatial occurrence (O) of a given species is calculated as a percentage from N in a given area/stratigraphic unit equivalent to 100%. Based on C and O, all species are divided into dominant and accessory ones. The dominant species with the highest C forms the core of an assemblage. Accessory species define its variability. If O 50%, the species are considered as widely distributed, 49–10% as often occurring, 9–1% as rare, and 1% as single. If any species, independently from its quantity, occurs in the major- ity of samples, such a species is considered to be characteris- tic. Even if such species do not occur in high concentrations in assemblages, they can be still species indicators of a certain environment. For the evaluation of sedimentation rate and taphonomic considerations, the ratio between live and dead specimens was calculated using the following equations: P ¼ F1 Fl þ Fd 100% e ¼ f 1,2 . . . nl f 1,2 . . . nd where Fl and is the total number of live and dead specimens of all species, respectively, P is the ratio between live and total specimens, and e is the proportion of live to dead specimens of all species for a given sample. Coefficient P indicates the sedimentation rate; a lower P indicates slower sedimentation (Phleger 1960). Coefficient e characterizes taphonomic conditions, with the lower e indicating better taphonomic conditions for a given species.
  • 40.
    Þ Þ 18 2 StudyArea, Material, and Methods An influence of environmental factors on foraminifera is estimated using the ratio between megalospheric and microspheric (d) as well as between juvenile and adult (z) specimens of a given species using equations: d ¼ f meg f mic z ¼ f f ad1 If d 1 and z 1 or ¼ 0, the life conditions likely were not favorable and a species lived without reproduction. This is based on an assumption that, in extreme conditions, any organism tries to devote its energy to protecting itself and, therefore, prefers mitosis to meiosis (Effrussi and Farber 1975). To compare assemblages, the method of Cabioch (1979) was implemented using quotations: K ¼ 1 ffiffiffi 2 p ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi x a x 2 r þ y a y 2 θ ¼ Arctg x y a ð y x a ð where x and y are the number of species in compared assemblages, a is the number of common species, K is the coefficient of similarity, and θ is the coefficient of enrich- ment. If K 0.707, the compared faunas are completely different; the smaller K is, the more similar are the faunas: weak similarity (K ¼ 0.707–0.507), medium similarity (K ¼ 0.506–0.207), and strong similarity (K 0.207). If K ¼ 0, the assemblages are identical. For θ ¼ 60 , the fauna is strongly enriched with species; if θ ¼ 30 , the fauna is impoverished, and intermediate numbers show exchange of one fauna by another. The methods described enabled us to establish the lateral rows of live foraminifera (Yanko 1990) that reflect migration succession of foraminiferal assemblages (MSFA) after change- able environmental conditions. Fossil analogues of the MSFA, expressed as an alternation of foraminiferal assemblages and their ecological characteristics, provide reliable background for the high-resolution bio- and ecostratigraphy and paleoenvir- onmental reconstructions in an area under study. 2.4 Stratigraphic Techniques The stratigraphic work follows the Russian subdivision of the Quaternary System (Zhamoida 2004) into the Eopleistocene (1.8–0.8 Ma), Neopleistocene (0.8–0.01 Ma), and Holocene (0.01–0.0 Ma). The resulting high-resolution stratigraphy and geochronology of the Late Quaternary (Neopleistocene and Holocene) sediments are based on the combination of bio- and ecostratigraphic criteria supplemented by absolute dat- ing. Biostratigraphic criterion includes precise taxonomic analysis of benthic foraminifera to trace species evolution and to discover species indicators for certain time intervals. Due to the shortness of the studied time interval, the applica- tion of this criterion is limited and so is supplemented by ecostratigraphic criteria. Ecostratigraphy is the biostrati- graphic application of ecological and paleoecological principles to develop an understanding of the global external-forcing agents that drive ecological change. The ecostratigraphy of the Black Sea addresses biotic responses to isolation from and connection to the neighboring Sea of Marmara and Caspian Sea and to related sea-level changes and salinity oscillations. This ecostratigraphic technique is based largely on the alternation of foraminiferal assemblages and their ecological characteristics in geological sections, supported by 14 C and palynological assays. An increase in the number of Mediterranean immigrants, especially strictoeuryhaline and polyhaline species, in sediment sequences indicates an increase of Mediterranean influence and salinity and vice versa. The complete replacement of Mediterranean immigrants by oligohaline Caspian species shows the separation between the Black Sea and Mediterra- nean, followed by the desalination of the Black Sea. This conclusion is based on a generally accepted observation, fully supported by our ecological study (Yanko 1989, 1990), that foraminifera are not well adapted to freshwater environments (Sen Gupta 1999). References Arslanov KhA, Tertychny NI, Kuznetsov VYu, Chernov SB, Lokshin NV, Gerasimova NA, Maksimov FE, Dodonov AE (2002) 230 Th/U and 14 C dating of mollusc shells from the coasts of the Caspian, Barents, White and Black Seas. Geochronometria 21:49–56 Bagrov NV, Shnyukov EF, Maslakov NA et al (2012) Karta relief Chernogo i Azovskogo morey, mashtab 1:500,000 (Map of relief of the Black and Azov Seas, scale 1:500,000). Department of Marine Geology and Mineral Resources of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and scientific – Research Center of Sustainable Development, Taurida V.I. National University, Ukraine, Simpheropol (in Russian) Bogdanowicz AK (1952) Miliolids and peneroplids: Trudy VNIGRI, 338 pp. Novaja Seriya 64. (in Russian) Bogdanowicz AK (1960) O sistematicheskom znachenii meandrovogo navvaniya kamer u nekotorykh Nubecularia (About systematic sig- nificance of meander chamber arrangement of some Nubecularia). Voprosy Micropaleontologii 3:3–7. (in Russian) Bogdanowicz AK (1971) O nekotorykh morfologicheskih otkloneniy v miliolidakh (About some morphological abnormalities in miliolids). In: Subbotina NN (ed) Novoe v sistematike microfauny. Trudy VNIGRI 291:7–17. (in Russian) Bresler V, Yanko V (1995) Chemical ecology: a new approach to study living benthic epiphytic foraminifera. J Foram Res 25(3):267–279 Cabioch L (1979) Caractères de la dissemblance entre peuplements en écologie marine benthique. Présentation d’une nouvelle métrique qualitative: la distance polaire. Comptes-rendus de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris 289:583–584
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    References 19 Carpenter WB(1856) Researches in the foraminifera. R Soc London Philos Trans 146:547–569 Cimerman F, Langer MR (1991) Mediterranean foraminifera. Slovenska Academia Znanosti in Umetnosti, Ljublana. 119 pp Daily Telegraph (2010, April 5) Aral Sea ‘one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters’. The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010 Debenay JP, Geslin E, Eichler BB, Duleba W, Sylvestre F, Eichler P (2001) Foraminiferal assemblages in a hypersaline Lagoon, Araruama (R.J.), Brazil. J Foraminiferal Res 31:133–155 DeMets C, Gordon RG, Argus DF, Stein S (1990) Current plate motions. Geophys J Int 101:425–478 Dodonov AE, Tchepalyga (¼Chepalyga) AL, Mihailescu CD, Zhou LP, Markova AK, Trubikhin VM, Simakova AN, Konikov EG (2000) Last-interglacial records from Central Asia to the northern Black Sea shoreline: stratigraphy and correlation. Neth J Geosci 79(2–3):303–311 Effrussi B, Farber JL (1975) Hybridization of somatic cells. Academic, New York Hansen HJ, Lykke-Andersen A-L (1976) Wall structure and classifica- tion of fossil and recent elphidiid and nonionid Foraminifera. Fossils Strata 10:1–37 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000065031. Assessed on 2 May 2022 Ivanov VA, Belokopytov VN (2013) Oceanography of the Black Sea. National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Marine Hydrophysical Institute, Sevastopol, ECOSY-Gidrofizika, 210 pp Konikov EG (1992) Gidrogeokhimicheskaya tipizatsya porovikh rastvorov verkhnepleistotsenovykh- golotsenovikh otlozheniy Chernogo morya (Hydrogeochemical typification of pore solutions of the Upper Pleistocene-Holocene sediments of the Black Sea). Geologicheskiy zhurnal 3:100–107. (in Russian) Konikov EG (2007) Sea-level fluctuations and coastline migration in the Northwestern Black Sea area over the last 18 ky based on high- resolution lithological-genetic analysis of sediment architecture. In: Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert AS, Panin N, Dolukhanov P (eds) The Black Sea flood question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 405–435 Langer MR (2008) Foraminifera from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. In: Por FD (ed) Aqaba-Eilat, the improbable gulf: environment, biodiversity and preservation. Magnes Press, Jerusalem, pp 399–417 Lidz L (1965) Sedimentary environments and foraminiferal parameter: Nantucket Bay, Massachusetts. Limnol Oceanogr 10:392–402 Logvinenko NV, Sergeeva EI (1986) Metody opredeleniya osadochnykh porod (Methods for Determination of Sedimentary Rocks). Leningrad, Nedra, 240 pp (in Russian) McKenzie D (1972) Active tectonics of the Mediterranean region. Geophys J Int 30:109–185 McClusky S, Balassanian S, Barka A et al (2000) Global positioning system constraints on plate kinematics and dynamics in the eastern Mediterranean and Caucasus. J Geophys Res 105:5695–5719 Mudie PJ, Leroy SAG, Marret F et al (2011) Nonpollen palynomorphs: indicators of salinity and environmental change in the Caspian– Black Sea–Mediterranean corridor. In Buynevich I, Yanko- Hombach V, Gilbert A, Martin R (eds) Geology and Geoarchaeology of the Black Sea region: beyond the flood hypothe- sis. GSA Special Paper, GSA, Colorado, pp 245–262 Panin N, Jipa D (2002) Danube River sediment input and its interaction with the North-Western Black Sea. Estuarine Coast Shelf Sci 54: 551–562 Pflum CE, Frerichs WE (1976) Gulf of Mexico deep-water foraminifers, Cushman foundation for foraminiferal research, special publication 14. Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, Washington, pp 1–108 Phleger FB (1960) Ecology and distribution of recent Forami-nifera. John Hopkins Press, Baltimore. 297 pp Reilinger RE, McClusky SC, Souter BJ (1997) Preliminary estimates of plate convergence in the Caucasus collision zone from GPS measurements. Geophy Res Lett 24:1815–1818 Rhumbler L (1911) Die Foraminiferen (Thalamophoren) der Plankton Expedition, Pt. 1, Die allgemeinen Organizationsverhaltnisse der Foraminiferen: Lipsius Tisher, Kiel und Leipzig, 331 pp Robertson AHF, Ustaömer T, Pickett EA, Collins AS, Andrew T, Dixon JE (2004) Testing models of Late-Palaeozoic-Early Mesozoicorogeny in Western Turkey: support for an evolving open-Tethys model. J Geol Soc 161:501–511 Schönfeld J, Alve E, Geslin E, Jorissen F, Korsun S, Spezzaferri S, Members of the FOBIMO group (2012) The FOBIMO (FOraminiferal BIo-MOnitoring) initiative – towards a standardized protocol for soft-bottom benthic foraminiferal monitoring studies. Mar Micropaleontol 94–95:1–13 Semenenko VN, Kovalyukh NN (1973) Absolutniy vozrast verchnechetvertichnykh otlozeniy azovo- chernomorskogo basseyna po dannym radiouglerodnogo analiza (Radiocarbon age of Upper Quaternary sediments of the Azov-Black Sea basin). Geologicheskiy Zhurnal 33(6):91–97. (in Russian) Sen Gupta BK (1999) Foraminifera in marginal marine environments. In: Sen Gupta BK (ed) Modern Foraminifera. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 141–160 Smith DE, Kolenkiewics R, Robbins PJW, Dunn J, Torrence MH (1994) Horizontal crustal motion in the central and eastern Mediterranean inferred from satellite laser ranging measurements. Geophys Res Lett 21:1979–1982 Svitoch AA, Yanina TA, Menabde IV (1992) Paleogeografiya pozdnego pleystotsena Ponto-Kaspiya (Paleogeography of the Late Pleistocene of the Ponto-Caspian). Vestnik Mosk. un-ta. Ser. 5. Geografiya 6(68–76) (in Russian) Tari E, Sahin M, Barka A et al (2000) Active tectonics of the Black Sea with GPS. Earth Planets Space 52:747–751 Voskoboynikov VM, Krakovskiy BI, Konnikov EG, Yanko V (1985) Litologiya chetvertichnykh otlozheniy: Tekstury donnykh otlozheniy (Lithology of Quaternary sediments: textures of the bot- tom sediments). In: Shnyukov EF (ed) Geologiya shelfa USSR: Litologiya. Naukova Dumka, Kiev, pp 93–130. (in Russian) Yanko V (1979) Stratigrafiya i geochronologoya donnykh otlozheniy: Stratigraficheskie kompleksy bentocnykh foraminifer. Obschaya stratigraficheskaya skhema (Stratigraphy and geochronology of the bottom sediments: stratigraphic complexes of benthic foraminifera. General stratigraphic scheme). In: Malovitsky Y (ed) Geology and hydrology of the Western part of the Black Sea. Ac. Sc. Bulg, Sofia, pp 82–95. (in Russian) Yanko V (1989) Quaternary Foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian Region (The Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea): taxonomy, biostratigraphy, history, ecology. Doctoral thesis. Moscow State University, two volumes, 1000 pp (in Russian) Yanko V (1990) Stratigraphy and paleogeography of marine Pleistocene and Holocene Deposits of the Southern Seas of the USSR. Mem Soc Geol Ital 44:167–187 Yanko V, Gramova L (1990) Stratigraphy of the quaternary sediments of the Caucasian shelf and continental slope of the Black Sea on microfauna (foraminifera and ostracoda). J Sov Geol 2:60–72. (in Russian) Yanko V, Frolov V, Motnenko I (1990) Foraminifery i litologiya karangatskogo gorizonta (Antropogen Kerchenskogo poluostrova) Foraminifera and lithology of the Karangatian horizon (Quaternary of the Kerchenian Peninsula). Bull Mos Soc Nat Geol Branch 65:83– 97. (in Russian) Yanko VV, Kondariuk TO (2020) Origin and taxonomy of the Neopleistocene-Holocene Ponto- Caspian benthic foraminifera. Geologichnyy zhurnal 1:17–33
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    20 2 StudyArea, Material, and Methods Yanko V, Troitskaya T (1987) Pozdnechetvertichnye foramifery Chernogo morya (Late Quaternary Foraminifera of the Black Sea). Nauka, Moscow (in Russian) Yanko et al. 1995 Yanko V, Ahmad M, Kaminski M (1998) Morphological deformities of benthic foraminiferal tests in response to pollution by heavy metals: implications for pollution monitoring. J Foraminiferal Res 28(3): 177–200 Yanko V, Arnold A, Parker W (1999) The effect of marine pollution on benthic foraminifera. In: Sen Gupta BK (ed) Modern Foraminifera. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 217–238 Yanko VV, Kondariuk TO, Kadurin SV (2019) Istoriya heolohichnoho rozvytku pivnichno- zakhidnoho shel’fu Chornoho morya v pizn’omu neopleystotsena-holotseni (History of geological develop- ment of the north-western shelf of the Black Sea in the late Neo- Pleistocene-Holocene). Zbirnyk naukovykh prats0 Instytutu geolohichnykh nauk NAN Ukrayiny 12:123–136 (in Ukranian) Yanko-Hombach V (2007a) Controversy over Noah’s flood in the Black Sea: geological and foraminiferal evidence from the shelf. In: Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert AS, Panin N, Dolukhanov PM (eds) The Black Sea flood question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 149–204 Yanko-Hombach V (2007b) Table of radiocarbon dates from USSR and non-USSR sources. In: Yanko-Hombach V, Gilbert AS, Panin N, Dolukhanov PM (eds) The Black Sea flood question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 861–877 Yanko-Hombach V (eds) Proceedings of IGCP 610 First Plenary Meeting and Field Trip. 12th–19th October 2013, Tbilisi, Georgia, Yanko-Hombach V, Yanina TA, Motnenko I (2013) Neopleistocene stratigraphy of the Ponto-Caspian Corridors. In: Gilbert A and pp 170–176 Yanko-Hombach V, Mudie PJ, Kadurin S, Larchenkov E (2014) Holo- cene marine transgression in the Black Sea: new evidence from the northwestern Black Sea shelf. Quat Int 345:100–118 Yanko-Hombach V, Schnyukov E, Pasynkov A, Sorokin V, Kuprin P, Maslakov N, Motnenko I, Smyntyna O (2017) Late Pleistocene- Holocene environmental factors defining the Azov- Black Sea basin, and the identification of potential sample areas for seabed prehistoric site prospecting and landscape exploration on the Black Sea continental shelf. In: Flemming NC, Harff J, Moura D, Burgess A, Bailey GN (eds) Submerged landscapes of the European continental shelf: quaternary Paleoenvironments. Wiley- Blackwell, Chichester, pp 431–478 Yilmaz Y (1997) Geology of Western Anatolia. Active tectonics of northwestern Anatolia. In: Schindler C, Pfister M, Aksoy A (eds) Active tectonics of Northwestern Anatolia: the MARMARA poly- project: a multidisciplinary approach by space-geodesy, geology, hydrogeology, Geothermics and seismology. Vdf, Hochschulverlag AG an der ETH, Zurich, pp 210 Zhamoida AI (2004) Problems related to the international (standard) stratigraphic scale and its perfection. Stratigr Geol Correl 12:321– 330. (Translated from Stratigrafiya. Geologicheskaya Korrelyatsiya 12:3c–13) Zubov NN (1956) Osnovy izuchenya prolivov Mirovogo okeana (Fundamentals of the studies of World Ocean straits). Geographgiz, Moscow (in Russian)
  • 43.
    3 Taxonomic Classification ofForaminifera Abstract The higher taxonomic classifications proposed by Saidova (O sovremennom sostoyanii sistemy nadvidovykh taksonov kaynozoyskikh bentosnykh foraminifer (On the current state of the system of supraspecific taxa of Cenozoic benthic foraminifers). AN SSSR, Moscow, 720 pp (in Russian), 1981), Mikhalevich (Micropaleontol- ogy 59:493–527, 2013), and Pawlowski et al. (Mar Micropaleontol 100:1–10, 2013), in conjunction with classifications suggested by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), were used to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, including information on synonymy. Unfortunately, in many cases the WoRMS classifications did not fit with the author’s concept for the higher classification of the Ponto-Caspian Quaternary foraminifera; among the editors of WoRMS, there is no one with specific expertise in the fauna of this unique geographic region. As a conse- quence of the specific geographic position and its long semi- or complete isolation from the World Ocean, the Ponto-Caspian biota, including foraminifera, is quite spe- cific. Also, purely taxonomic work was not the main goal of this investigation of the Ponto-Caspian Quaternary foraminifera. This book focuses on applied components enabling the use of foraminifera for stratigraphy and paleogeographic reconstructions, as well as for environ- mental monitoring. A polytypic concept of species recognizes that any species is composed of many allopatric populations that can differ to a certain degree from each other. If individuals from these populations differ in diagnostic morphological characteristics and are geographically and temporally isolated, they can be considered as subspecies. The identification of species is based on the set of criteria for zoological systematics developed by Mayr et al. (Metody i printsipy zoologicheskoy sistematiki (Methods and principles of zoological systematic). Izd-vo insstr.lit., Moscow, 49 pp (in Russian), 1953) and Mayr (Printsipy zoologicheskoy sistematiki (Principles of zoological sys- tematic). Mir, Moscow, 454 pp (in Russian), 1971) for the entire fauna as a whole and refined by Fursenko (Vvedenie v izuchenie foraminifer (Introduction to the study of fora- minifera). Trudy Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki 391. Nauka, Novosibirsk, 242 pp (in Russian), 1978) for fora- minifera. His concept is based on the assumption that only combinations of morphological (or comparative morpho- logical), geographical, ecological, geochronological, and discriminative criteria can provide correct identification of a species. All taxa of the Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto- Caspian are classified as belonging to Kingdom Protoctista, Class Foraminifera d’Orbigny, 1826. The classification of the Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian includes 180 and 7 lower taxa of benthic and planktonic foraminifera, respectively. Nineteen species are given in open nomenclature. Among benthic foraminifera, 30 are agglutinated; the remaining 150 lower taxa are characterized by calcium carbonate tests. # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 V. Yanko, Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12374-0_3 21 Keywords Phenetic species concept · Criteria for species identifica- tion · Principles of taxonomic classification 3.1 General Remarks Application of foraminifera to high-resolution stratigraphy and paleoenvironmental reconstructions requires precise tax- onomic identification of lower taxa and their further integra- tion into the general system of foraminifera. As for today, foraminiferal taxonomy relies on a phenetic species concept (e.g., Loeblich and Tappan 1988) that classifies foraminifera by their morphological similarities, which can be also caused by environmental variations. As a consequence, it is often difficult to make a decision whether morphological variations
  • 44.
    are genotypic orecophenotypic. Classifying foraminifera by morphological criteria may lead to appearance of species with wide geographic and stratigraphic distribution, e.g., Ammonia beccarii described by Linnaeus (1758). Another concept is needed to resolve taxonomic problems. Molecular concepts (e.g., Holzmann 2000) opens new perspectives for the taxonomy of recent foraminifera because molecular sys- tematics enables relatively clear definitions of existing taxa and investigation of hidden genetic subdivisions (sibling species). The main disadvantage of this concept is its appli- cability to living organisms only, as they comprise only a small proportion of the total number of known species. Thus, molecular concepts are not useful for stratigraphers who are dealing largely with fossil species that often have no analogues among recent foraminifera. For the Quaternary, the molecular classification is useful, though a variety of limitations must be recognized. At the current stages of development, no sufficient data bank is yet available, some groups are very resistant to genomic techniques, and the wide distributions of cryptobiotic propagules result in the appear- ance of sequences far outside their viable ranges. Thus, morphological criteria for identification remain essential both in traditional studies and for comparisons with environ- mental applications of molecular classifications. 22 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera 3.2 Principles of Taxonomic Classification The author has carefully analyzed the higher taxonomic classifications suggested by Saidova (1981), Mikhalevich (2013), and Pawlowski et al. (2013) and have tried to adopt those schemes to classifications suggested by the World Registered Marine Species (WoRMS) (WoRMS Editorial Board 2021), the aim of which is to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, including information on synonymy. Unfortunately, in many cases the WoRMS classifications did not fit with the author’s concept for a higher classification of the Ponto- Caspian Quaternary foraminifera. As a consequence of the specific geographic position of the Ponto-Caspian and its long semi- or complete isolation from the World Ocean, its biota, including foraminifera, is quite specific. Unfortunately, among the editors of WoRMS, there is no one with specific expertise in the fauna of the unique Ponto-Caspian geo- graphic region (see map “Our editors around the world” at http://www.marinespecies.org/about.php). Also, purely taxo- nomic work was not the main goal of this investigation of the Ponto-Caspian Quaternary foraminifera. This book focuses on applied components enabling use of foraminifera for stratigraphy and paleogeographic reconstructions (Chap. 6), as well as for environmental monitoring (Chap. 7). The basic taxonomic unit of the system for any group of organisms is the “species.” Therefore, the primary task of a researcher dealing with issues of taxonomy is the accurate understanding of the species characteristics and the establish- ment of criteria to consistently identify individuals at all stages of ontogeny. This work adopts a polytypic concept of the species, that is, that any species is composed of many allopatric populations that can differ to a certain degree from each other. If individuals from these populations differ in diagnostic morphological characteristics and are geographi- cally and temporally isolated, they are considered as subspe- cies. The identification of species is based on the set of criteria for zoological systematics developed by Mayr et al. (1956) and Mayr (1971) for the entire fauna as a whole and refined by Fursenko (1978) for foraminifera. His concept is based on the assumption that only a combination of morpho- logical (or comparative morphological), geographical, eco- logical, geochronological, and discriminative criteria can provide correct identification of a species. The morphological criteria describe external and internal features of foraminiferal tests. The geographical, ecological, and geochronological criteria associate species with certain zoo- geographical areoles and environmental conditions required for their existence and adaptation at certain chronological time interval. The discriminative criteria specify parameters useful to distinguish foraminiferal species from each other. The above criteria correspond to the main philosophical categories of time (geochronological), space (geographical), evolution (morphological), and metabolism (ecological) of organisms. Being isolated from each other inevitably leads to the emergence of distinct features. In our material they are represented by a group of species previously united under the name A. beccarii, as will be discussed below. Using this concept, this work classifies and uses stratigra- phy for some taxa (e.g., Ammonia spp., Yanko 1990a) that were considered by some authors as useless for biostrati- graphic purposes because of difficulties and uncertainties in their identification (e.g., Holzmann 2000). The main characteristics are morphological, geochronological, geo- graphic, and ecological, primarily morphological criteria. All taxa of the Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto- Caspian are classified as belonging to Kingdom Protoctista, Class Foraminifera d’Orbigny, 1826, Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 (Table 3.1). Classification of the Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto- Caspian includes altogether 180 benthic and 7 planktonic species and subspecies. Among benthic foraminifera, 30 are agglutinated, and the remaining lower taxa are characterized by calcium carbonate tests. The classification of Loeblich and Tappan (1988) provides the basis for the generic classification used in this study. The taxonomic
  • 45.
    ¼ (continued) 3.2 Principles ofTaxonomic Classification 23 Table 3.1 Taxonomic classification of the Late Quaternary foraminifera of the Ponto-Caspian Region Kingdom Protoctista Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826 Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 Order Astrorhizida Lankester, 1885 Family Astrorhizidae Brady, 1881 Genus Astrammina Rhumbler in Wiesner, 1931 Astrammina sphaerica (Brady, 1871)*** Genus Bathysiphon Sars, 1872 Bathysiphon hirudinea (Herron-Allen and Earland, 1932)*** Family Psammosphaeridae Haeckel, 1894 Subfamily Psammosphaerinae Haeckel, 1894 Genus Psammosphaera Schultze, 1875 Psammmosphaera sp. Family Saccaminidae Brady, 1884 Subfamily Saccamininae Brady, 1884 Genus Saccammina Sars, in Carpenter, 1869 Saccammina sp.** Genus Proteonella Lukina, 1969 Proteonella atlantica (Cushman), 1944 Genus Ovammina Dahlgren, 1962 Ovammina leptoderma Mayer** Genus Hemisphaerammina Loeblich and Tappan, 1957 Hemisphaerammina sp.** Order Ammodiscida Fursenko, 1958 Family Ammodiscidae Reuss, 1862 Genus Glomospira Rzehak, 1885 Glomospira glomerata Hoglund, 1947* Glomospira gordialis (Jones and Parker, 1860)*** Family Discamminidae Mikhalevich, 1980 Genus Discammina Lacroix, 1932 Discammina imperspica Yanko, 1974 Family Lituolidae De Blainville, 1825 Genus Lituola Lamarck, 1804 Lituola nautilus Brady * Genus Labrospira Höglund, 1947 Labrospira sp.* Genus Ammobaculites Cushman, 1910 Ammobaculites exiguus contractus Mayer, 1972 Ammobaculites ponticus Mikhalevich, 1968 Genus Haplophragmoides Cushman, 1910 Haplophragmoides tenuicutis (Mayer), 1972 Genus Ammoscalaria Höglund, 1947 Ammoscalaria verae Mayer, 1968 Ammoscalaria sp., in Yanko, 1989 Genus Haplophragmium (Reussina) Gryzbowski, 1895 Haplophragmium maync Loeblich and Tappan, 1952* Family Textulariidae Ehrenberg, 1838 Genus Textularia Defrance, 1824 Textularia deltoidea Reuss* Textularia conica d’Orbigny, 1839 ( Textularia sp. in Yanko, 1989) Order Schlumbergerinida Mikhalevich, 1980 Family Miliamminidae Saidova, 1981 Genus Birsteiniolla Mayer, 1974 Birsteiniolla macrostoma Yankovskaya and Mikhalevich, 1972***
  • 46.
    (continued) 24 3 TaxonomicClassification of Foraminifera Table 3.1 (continued) Kingdom Protoctista Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826 Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 Genus Miliammina (Brady, 1870) Miliammina fusca (Brady, 1870) Miliammina groenlandica Cushman**** Family Siphonapertinae Saidova, 1975 Genus Siphonaperta Vella, 1957 Siphonaperta agglutinans (d’Orbigny, 1839) Order Ataxophragmiida Fursenko, 1958 Family Trochamminidae Schwager, 1877 Genus Entzia von Daday, 1884 Entzia polystoma caspica (Mayer), 1968** Entzia polystoma dacica (Tufescu), 1973**** Genus Rotaliammina Cushman, 1924 Rotaliammina intermedia Rhumbler 1938* Rotaliammina ochracea (Williamson), 1858 Family Verneulinidae Cushman, 1911 Genus Spiroplectinata Cushman, 1927 Spiroplectinata perexilis (Mayer), 1968** Family Eggerellidae Cushman, 1937 Genus Eggerelloides Cushman, 1933 Eggerelloides scaber (Williamson, 1858) Order Miliolida Lankester, 1885 Family Cornuspiridae Shultze, 1854 Genus Cornuspira Shultze, 1854 Cornuspira minuscula (Mayer, 1968) Cornuspira planorbis Shultze, 1854 Superfamily Milioloidea Ehrenberg, 1839 Family Miliolidae Ehrenberg, 1839 Subfamily Miliolinae Ehrenberg, 1839 Genus Ammomassilina Cushman, 1933 Massilina alveoliniformis (Millett, 1898)* Subfamily Quinqueloculininae Cushman, 1917 Genus Quinqueloculina d’Orbigny, 1826 Quinqueloculina angulata (Williamson, 1858) Quinqueloculina bicornis (Walker and Jacob), 1798 Quinqueloculina consobrina (d’Orbigny), 1846 Quinqueloculina curvula Yanko, 1989 Quinqueloculina delicatula Bogdanowicz, 1952 Quinqueloculina inflata (d’Orbigny), 1826 Quinqueloculina laevigata (d’Orbigny), 1826 Quinqueloculina lamarckiana d’Orbigny, 1839 Quinqueloculina lata Terquem, 1878 Quinqueloculina milletti (Wiesner), 1912 Quinqueloculina oblonga (Montagu), 1803 Quinqueloculina reussi (Bogdanowicz), 1947 Quinqueloculina seminulum (Linne), 1767 Quinqueloculina venusta Karrer, 1868 Quinqueloculina vulgaris d’Orbigny, 1826 Quinqueloculina ex gr. gracilis Karrer, in Yanko, 1989 Genus Dentostomina Carman, 1933 Dentostomina bermudiana Carmann, 1933* Genus Massilina Schlumberger, 1893
  • 47.
    ¼ (continued) 3.2 Principles ofTaxonomic Classification 25 Table 3.1 (continued) Kingdom Protoctista Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826 Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 Massilina inaequalis (d’Orbigny), 1839 Massilina secans (d’Orbigny), 1826 Genus Lachlanella Vella, 1957 Lachlanella sp. Genus Pateoris Loeblich and Tappan, 1953 Pateoris dilatatus (d’Orbigny), 1838 Pateoris sp., in Yanko, 1989 Genus Pyrgo Defrance, 1824 Pyrgo elongata (d’Orbigny), 1826 Pyrgo fisheri (Schlumberger), 1891 Subfamily Miliolinellinae Vella, 1957 Genus Miliolinella Wiesner, 1931 Miliolinella circularis (Bornemann), 1865 Miliolinella elongata Kruit, 1955 Miliolinella sp., in Yanko, 1989 Miliolinella risilla Mayer, 1972* Miliolinella selene (Karrer), 1868 Miliolinella subrotunda (Montagu), 1803 Subfamily Tubinelinae Rhumbler, 1906 Genus Articulina (d’Orbigny), 1826 Articulina tubulosa (Seguenza, 1862) Articulina ex gr. tenella Eichwald, 1830 Articulina sp., in Yanko, 1989 Subfamily Triloculininae Bogdanowicz, 1981 Genus Triloculina d’Orbigny, 1826 Triloculina (?) angustioris (Bogdanowicz), 1952 Triloculina marioni Schlumberger, 1883 Triloculina sp. 2, in Yanko, 1989 Genus Sigmella Azbel Mikhalevich, 1983 Sigmella distorta (Phleger and Parker), 1951 Sigmella tenuis (Czjzek), 1848 Sigmella sp., in Yanko, 1989 Genus Cycloforina Łuczkowska, 1972 Cycloforina? sp. Order Lagenida Fursenko, 1958 Superfamily Nodosariidae Ehrenberg, 1838 Family Nodosariidae Ehrenberg, 1838 Subfamily Nodosariinae Ehrenberg, 1838 Genus Orthomorphina Stainforth, 1952 Orthomorphina calomorpha (Reuss), 1866 Orthomorphina drammenensis Feyling-Hanssen, 1964 Orthomorphina filiformis (d’Orbigny), 1826 Subfamily Lageninae Brady, 1881 Genus Lagena Walker and Jacob in Kanmacher, 1798 Lagena quadrilatera quadrilatera Earland, 1934 Lagena semistriata (Williamson), 1858 Lagena striata (d’Orbigny), 1839 Lagena vulgaris Williamson, 1858 Lagena sp., in Yanko, 1989 Superfamily Glandulinoidea Yanko, 1989 Family Glandulinidae Reuss, 1860 Subfamily Glandulininae Reuss, 1860
  • 48.
    (continued) 26 3 TaxonomicClassification of Foraminifera Table 3.1 (continued) Kingdom Protoctista Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826 Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 Genus Glandulina d’Orbigny, in de la Sagra, 1839 Glandulina sp., in Yanko and Troitskaya, 1987 Family Polymorphinidae d’Orbigny, 1839 Genus Guttulina d’Orbigny, 1839 Guttulina lactea (Walker and Jacob), 1798 Subfamily Laryngosigminae Saidova, 1981 Genus Esosyrinx Loeblich and Tappan, 1953 Esosyrinx jatzkoi Yanko, 1974 Esosyrinx praelongus (Terquem), 1878 Esosyrinx undulosus (Terquem), 1878 Esosyrinx sp., in Yanko, 1989 Genus Laryngosigma Loeblich and Tappan, 1953 Laryngosigma williamsoni (Terquem), 1878 Subfamily Entolingulinae Saidova, 1981 Genus Entolingulina Loeblich and Tappan, 1961 Entolingulina deplanata Yanko, 1974 Subfamily Oolininae Loeblich and Tappan, 1961 Genus Oolina d’Orbigny, 1839 Oolina squamosa (Montagu), 1803 Oolina sp., in Yanko, 1989 Genus Fissurina Reuss, 1850 Fissurina fabaria Troitskaya, 1987 Fissurina fragilis Troitskaya, 1987 Fissurina lineata (Williamson), 1858 Fissurina lucida (Williamson), 1858 Fissurina nummiformis (Büchner), 1940 Fissurina porrecta Troitskaya, 1987 Fissurina solida Seguenza, 1862 Fissurina tamanica Yanko, 1989 Fissurina sp., in Yanko, 1989 Genus Parafissurina Parr, 1947 Parafissurina aventricosa McCulloch, 1968 Parafissurina dzemetinica Yanko, 1974 Parafissurina ex gr. lateralis Cushman, in Yanko and Troitskaya, 1987 Order Rotaliida Delage and Herouard, 1896 Superfamily Discorboidea Ehrenberg, 1838 Family Discorbiidae Ehrenberg, 1838 Subfamily Discorbiinae Ehrenberg, 1838 Genus Discorbis Lamarck, 1804 Discorbis bertheloti (d’Orbigny), 1839 Discorbis vilardeboana (d’Orbigny), 1839 Discorbis sp. Genus Gavelinopsis Hofker, 1951 Gavelinopsis sp., in Yanko, 1989 Subfamily Rosaliinae Reuss, 1963 Genus Rosalina d’Orbigny, 1826 Rosalina catesbyana d’Orbigny, 1839 Rosalina sp., in Yanko, 1989 Family Glabratellidae Loeblich and Tappan, 1964 Genus Heronallenia Chapman and Parr, 1931 Heronallenia chasteri (Heron-Allen and Earland), 1913
  • 49.
    (continued) 3.2 Principles ofTaxonomic Classification 27 Table 3.1 (continued) Kingdom Protoctista Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826 Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 Superfamily Anomalinoidea Cushman, 1927 Family Cibicidae Cushman, 1927 Genus Cibicides Montfort, 1808 Cibicides dispars (d’Orbigny), 1838 Cibicides lobatulus (Walker and Jacob), 1798 Cibicides mckannai Galloway and Wiesler, 1927 Family Planorbulinidae Schwager, 1877 Genus Planorbulina d’Orbigny, 1826 Planorbulinella mediterranensis d’Orbigny, 1826 Family Acervulinidae Schultze, 1854 Genus Acervulina Schultze, 1854 Acervulina inhaerens Schulze, 1854 Superfamily Nonionoidae Schultze, 1854 Family Nonionidae Schultze, 1854 Genus Nonion Montfort, 1808 Nonion matagordanus Kornfeld, in Cushman, 1939 Nonion pauciloculum Cushman, 1944 Genus Florilus Montfort, 1808 Florilus trochospiralis Mayer, 1968 Florilus cf. atlanticum (Cushman, 1947) Family Trichochyalidae Saidova, 1981 Genus Trichochyalus Loeblich and Tappan, 1953 Trichochyalus aguajoi (Bermudez), 1935 Superfamily Rotalioidea Ehrenberg, 1839 Family Rotaliidae Ehrenberg, 1839 Genus Rotalia Lamarck, 1804 Rotalia calcar (d’Orbigny in Deshayes, 1830)* Family Ammoniidae Saidova, 1981 Genus Ammonia Brünnich, 1772 Ammonia agoiensis Yanko, 1990 Ammonia ammoniformis (d’Orbigny), 1826 Ammonia beccarii (Linne), 1758 Ammonia caspica Stschedrina, 1975 Ammonia caucasica Yanko, 1990 Ammonia compacta Hofker, 1969 Ammonia novoeuxinica Yanko, 1979 Ammonia parasovica Stchedrina and Mayer, 1975 Ammonia parkinsoniana (d’Orbigny), 1839 Ammonia tepida (Cushman), 1928 Family Canaliferidae Krasheninnikov, 1960 Genus Canalifera Krasheninnikov, 1960 Canalifera earlandi (Cushman), 1936 Canalifera nigarensis (Cushman), 1939 Canalifera oweniana (d’Orbigny), 1839 Canalifera parkerae Yanko, 1974 Canalifera punctata (Terquem), 1878 Canalifera ex gr. verriculata (Brady), in Yanko and Troitskaya, 1987 Family Elphidiidae Galloway, 1933 Subfamily Haynesininae Yanko, subfam.n. Genus Porosononion Putrja, 1958 Porosononion martkobi martkobi Bogdanowicz, 1947
  • 50.
    (continued) 28 3 TaxonomicClassification of Foraminifera Table 3.1 (continued) Kingdom Protoctista Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826 Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 Porosononion martkobi ponticus Yanko, 1989 Porosononion martkobi tschaudicus Yanko, 1989 Porosononion subgranosus mediterranicus Yanko, 1989 Porosononion subgranosus pshadicus Yanko, 1989 Porosononion submartkobi Yanko, 1989 Genus Aubignyna Margerel, 1970 Aubignyna mariei Margarel, 1970 Aubignyna perlucida (Herron-Allen and Earland), 1913 Aubignyna suckumiensis Yanko, 1989 Genus Haynesina Banner and Culver, 1978 Haynesina anglica (Murray), 1965 Haynesina eltigenica Yanko, 1989 Haynesina ex gr. germanica (Ehrenberg, 1840) Subfamily Elphidiinae Galloway, 1933 Genus Elphidium Montfort, 1808 Elphidium aculeatum (d’Orbigny), 1846 Elphidium caspicum azovicum Yanko, 1989 Elphidium caspicum caspicum Yanko, 1989 Elphidium caspicum karadenizum Yanko, 1989 Elphidium caspicum uzunlarum Yanko, 1989 Elphidium incertum tuberculatum (Williamson, 1858) Elphidium josephinum (d’Orbigny), 1846 Elphidium margaritaceum Cushman, 1939 Elphidium ponticum Dolgopolskaja and Pauli, 1931 Elphidium shochinae Mayer, 1968 Elphidium umbilicatulum (Williamson), 1858 Elphidium sp., in Yanko, 1989 Genus Cribroelphidium Cushman and Bronnimann, 1948 Cribroelphidium percursum Yanko, 1974 Cribroelphidium poeyanum (d’Orbigny), 1839 Cribroelphidium translucens (Natland), 1938 Cribroelphidium troitskayae Yanko, 1989 Genus Mayerella Yanko 1987 Mayerella aralica Yanko, 1987 Mayerella brotzkajae (Mayer), 1968 Mayerella kolkhidica Yanko, 1989 Superfamily Globogerinoidea Carpenter, 1862 Family Globigerinidae Carpenter, 1862 Genus Globigerina d’Orbigny, 1826 Globigerina bulloides d’Orbigny, 1826 Globigerina praebulloides Blow, 1959 Globigerina quinqueloba Natland, 1938 Genus Globoquadrina Finlay, 1947 Globoquadrina dutertrei (d’Orbigny, 1839) Globoquadrina hexagona (Natland, 1938) Genus Globorotalia Cushman, 1927 Globorotalia pumpilio Parker, 1962 Globorotalia crassaformis (Galloway and Wissler, 1927) Order Buliminida Fursenko, 1958 Family Buliminidae Jones, in Griffith et al., 1875 Subfamily Buliminidae Jones, 1875
  • 51.
    position of theForaminifera has varied since their recognition as Protozoa (Protista) by Schultze in 1854, who referred to the order Foraminiferida. Loeblich and Tappan (1992) reranked Foraminifera as a class as it is now commonly regarded by paleontologists. Tests of agglutinated foraminif- era are represented by four main types that differ in their morphology and internal structure and are placed into four orders: Astrorhizida, Ammodiscida, Schlumbergerinida, and Ataxophragmiida. All their representatives are characterized by different foreign particles and cement as well as the ratio between them. Secretory calcium carbonate foraminifera also belong to four orders: (1) Miliolida (high Mg calcite, porcellanous, three layers, non-lamellar, imperforate, tangle-shaped tests). (2) Lagenida (low Mg calcite, monolamellar, hyaline radial, single or multiple chambers, uniserial or planispiral), (3) Rotaliida (low Mg calcite, bilamellar and bilamellar–rotaloid, hyaline, perforated, mul- tichambered), and (4) Buliminida (low Mg calcite, bilamellar, perforated, multichambered, biserial, triserial). 3.3 Agglutinated Taxa 29 Table 3.1 (continued) Kingdom Protoctista Class Foraminifera D’Orbigny, 1826 Subclass Sarcodina Eichwald, 1830 Genus Bulimina d’Orbigny, 1826 Bulimina aculeata d’Orbigny, 1826 Bulimina elongata d’Orbigny, 1826 Globobulimina affinis (d’Orbigny, 1839) Family Uvigerinidae Haeckel, 1894 Genus Trifarina Cushman, 1923 Trifarina angulosa (Williamson), 1858 Family Bolivinidae Cushman, 1927 Genus Bolivina d’Orbigny, 1839 Bolivina doniezi Cushman and Wickenden, 1929 Bolivina pseudoplicata Heron-Allen and Earland, 1930 Bolivina variabilis (Williamson), 1858 Bolivina ex gr. dilatata Reuss, 1850 Bolivina sp. Genus Brizalina Costa, 1856 Brizalina spathulata (Williamson), 1858 Brizalina striatula (Cushman), 1922 Brizalina ex gr. danvillensis (Howe and Wallace), 1932, in Yanko and Troiskaya, 1987 Note. Asterisks mark the species, images, and, in some cases, descriptions that are provided in earlier publications on the Black and Caspian Seas: * Velkanova 1981; ** Mayer 1968, 1972, 1976; *** Mikhalevich 1968; **** Tufescu 1973, 1974. These species were not found in the material described in this book and are not illustrated herein. Most of the others are supplemented by images and descriptions herein 3.3 Agglutinated Taxa To classify agglutinated foraminifera from the Ponto-Caspian geographic region, special attention was paid to the compo- sition and quantitative ratio of agglutinated particles and cement in their tests. In calcareous foraminifera special attention was given to the microstructure (granular, radial), layer (monolamellar, bilamellar, bilamellar–rotaliid), poros- ity (size, shape, pore density), structure of the septal sutures, and canal system (e.g., in rotaliids). The agglutinated foraminiferal genera Miliammina and Siphonaperta with quinqueloculine chamber arrangement were moved from the family Rzehakinidae (Orlov 1959) or suborder Textulariina (Loeblich and Tappan 1964, 1981, 1984), where they were located based on siliceous content of their tests, to the family Shlumbergerinidae described by Mikhalevich (1980, 1983). The content of agglutinated particles and cement are not permanent characters of these species; they vary significantly on different substrates. For example, the tests for Eg. scaber and Mi. fusca collected from the quartz substrate are dominated by SiO2 and are not soluble in H2S. In contrast, those collected from the carbonate substrate have an elevated proportion of carbonate particles soluble in H2S. In our opinion, a false impression is created wherein the composi- tion of cement is not a result of the functional characteristics of the cytoplasm, but depends on nutrition. Rather, appar- ently as Saidova (1981) noted, forms that build their shells from agglutinated material extracted from the soil are “soil eaters” and receive all the necessary biochemical elements by assimilating the soil. The chamber arrangement seems to be the most stable feature of agglutinated species, as was stated by Mikhalevich
  • 52.
    . A similar arrangementof chambers has a type of species of given genera Ms. rugosa Sidebottom (Loeblich and Таррап 3.3b–d) (1980, 1983). In general, agglutinated foraminifera are rare among both living and fossil assemblages and have a spo- radic distribution in geological sequences. 30 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera 3.4 Taxonomic Classification of the Order Miliolida The order Miliolida in the Ponto-Caspian geographic region includes 42 lower taxa with a tangle-shaped structure of tests that have a porcelain-like, three-layer, non-lamellar-type wall with a thin organic matrix. At magnification of 5500 times in the SEM (Yanko 1989, volume II, Table IV, Fig. 11b), crystals composing the wall have an elongated habit and are arranged randomly, as a result of which there are gaps of different shapes and sizes between the crystals that appar- ently act as pores. Clear pore canals are absent. Crystal sizes include length from 0.3 to 1.4 μm and width of 0.01 μm. The test thickness decreases or increases in response to a decrease or increase of salinity, respectively. This dependence can be seen both on modern and fossil foraminifera and can be used for paleogeographic reconstructions. The internal structure of miliolid tests is a fundamental feature in generic diagnosis. However, it is often not expressed in test morphology, which produces errors in determining the genus, as was pointed out by Krasheninnikov (1959), Bogdanowicz (1969), and others. With plentiful and varied material, the author analyzed this feature in all morphological differences of the Ponto- Caspian Quaternary miliolids using thin cross sections. The following results were obtained: (1) Tests with four chambers on the multichamber and three on the small-chamber sides have quinqueloculine (fivefold) arrangement of chambers at all stages of ontogenesis, with angular distances between them of 72 (Fig. 3.1). Tests with three chambers on the multichamber and two on the small-chamber sides can have (a) a triloculine struc- ture, in which the chambers are located at an angle of 120 (Fig. 3.2a, b), and (b) cryptoquinqueloculine (Bogdanowicz 1969) or pseudotriloculine (Krasheninnikov 1959) structure (Fig. 3.1b, e). In the latter case, the three outer chambers (I, II, III) of the last whorl in adult forms sharply increase in size and overlap the previous ones. The angular distance is 144 between chambers I and II and II and III and 72 between chambers III and I. Chambers IV and V are hidden by external ones; however, they are all adjacent and the angle between them is 72 (Fig. 3.2c, d). Such structure of miliolid tests was first described by Bogdanowicz (1969) and has been fully confirmed on our material. Representatives of Massilina and Pateoris (genera- tion B) have a quinqueloculine arrangement of chambers in the initial whorl, cryptoquinqueloculine in the next one, and planospiral in the rest of the test (Fig. 3.3a–d). Tests of A1 generation have predominantly quinqueloculine arrangement of chambers in all stages of ontogenesis, while tests of A2 generation have all three types of chamber arrangement (Fig. Fig. 3.1 Inner structure of Quinqueloculina tests. Here and in Figs. 3.3 and 3.4: B, megageneration B; A1 and A2, microgenerations. (Drawn by Irena Motnenko) Fig. 3.2 Inner structure of Triloloculina (a, b), Sigmella (c, d), and Cornuspira (e, f) tests. (Drawn by Irena Motnenko)
  • 53.
    1964, Fig. 350–2с)and Pt. hauerinoides (Rhumbler) (Loeblich and Таррап 1964, Fig. 150–6b). This enables us to supplement and clarify diagnoses of given genera. 3.5 Taxonomic Classification of Order Lagenida 31 Fig. 3.3 Inner structure of Massilina and Pateoris tests: (a) and (e) apertural view; (b. c, d) chamber arrangement. (Drawn by Irena Motnenko) There is no common understanding of miliolids with a lamellar tooth. Loeblich and Tappan (1964, 1981) distinguish the genera Miliolinella and Soutuloris with triloculine and quinqueloculine, respectively, in the early stages. Bogdanowicz (1969) indicates that, judging by the “descriptions and images of the type species Ml. subrotunda (Montagu), it may include tests with three and four to five external chambers, and there is no certainty that the triloculine type is inherent in the former” (Bogdanowicz 1969, 94). Representatives of this group of miliolids have both cryptoquinqueloculine and quinqueloculine types of chamber arrangements. We found no such forms with triloculine cham- ber arrangement. Therefore, we refrain from isolating the genus Scutuloris. A more precise diagnosis of the genus Miliolinella is given in the systematic section (see Chap. 8). Thus, we refer to the genus Quinqueloculina for species with quinqueloculine (Q. angulata, Q. ех gr. gracilis, Q. lamarckiana, Q. lata, Q. milletti, Q. seminulum, Q. veпusta, Q. vulgaris) and cryptoquinqueloculine (Q. bicornis, Q. consobrina, Q. inflata, Q. laevigata, Q. oblonga, Q. curvula) types of chamber arrangement. For tests with triloculine chamber arrangement, we refer to the genera Triloculina and Sigmella. In the latter, only the late sections are sigmoiline, while the early chambers are characterized by the triloculine plane of coiling (Fig. 3.2d). With the exception of the genera Massilina, Miliolinella, Pateoris, and Sigmella, diagnoses of all other Miliolida are accepted without change in accordance with the classifications used. In addition to the abovementioned types of test arrangements, our material contains forms with a large proloculum and a spiral-coiled undivided second chamber (Fig. 3.2e, f), with a porcelainlike nonporous wall (genus Cornuspira). We support the opinion of Bogdanowicz (1969) about the need to preserve the name Cornuspira, although it is a junior synonym for Cyclogyra. This is because the former is firmly entered in the paleontological literature and gave rise to the terms derived from it (e.g., “cornuspira,” “cornuspiroid”), which are widely used for the characteristic of a certain type of test arrangement in foraminifera. Thus, in the order Miliolida, we distinguish two families: Cornuspiridae (the most primitive type of test arrangement) and Miliolidae (various modifications of the correctly ball-shaped type of test arrangement). The latter includes four subfamilies: (1) Quinqueloculinae with quinqueloquline and cryptoquinqueloquline chamber arrangements on all stages of ontogenesis (genus Quinqueloculina) (Fig. 3.1), or only at the beginning, later becoming planospiral (Massilina, Pateoris) (Fig. 3.3) or biloculine (Pyrgo) (Fig. 3.4), (2) Miliolinelinae (quinqueloquline type with laminated tooth, Miliolinella), (3) Tubinellinae (quinqueloquline in early stage, later becoming uniserial, Articulina), and (4) Triloculinae (triloculine in all stages of ontogenesis, Triloculina, or only in the early stage and later becoming sigmoline, Sigmella). 3.5 Taxonomic Classification of Order Lagenida The order Lagenida in the Ponto-Caspian geographic region includes 31 lower taxa. Lagenida tests have a monolamellar, optically, radially radiant and thin perforated wall. The main characteristic features are the test arrangement and aperture that were studied in detail. As a result, seven types of test arrangement were established: secondary single-chambered; uniaxial multichambered; double row in the initial and single row in the final sections; close to quinqueloculine; single row flattened; two rows, laterally compressed; and three rows in the initial part, later turning into two rows. Regardless of the test type and aperture shape (plain or lucid), the
  • 54.
    overwhelming majority oflagenids have an internal tube of different lengths and configurations as an element of the test internal structure at all stages of ontogenesis. This depends on the functional characteristics of the cytoplasm and acts as a controlling element in the most vulnerable part of the test, the aperture, making such forms better organized compared to those without internal tubes. 32 3 Taxonomic Classification of Foraminifera Fig. 3.4 Inner structure of Pyrgo tests: (a) peripheral view, (b) apertural view, (c) quinqueloquline and cryptoquinqueloquline chamber arrangements at the beginning only, (d, e) biloculine chamber arrange- ment on the later stage. (Drawn by Irena Motnenko) Within the order Lagenida, the author distinguishes two superfamilies—Nodosarioidea Ehrenberg, 1838 (without internal tube) and Glandulinoidea Yanko, superfam. Nov. (with internal tube)—represented by 30 species from ten genera: (1) Orthomorphina (uniserial test shape, simple rounded aperture), (2) Lagena (single-chambered test, simple rounded aperture), (3) Guttulina (test asymmetrical with irregular arrangement close to the triloculine one at the early stage and uniserial latter, radial aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis), (4) Glandulina (test biserial at the beginning and uniserial at distal end, slit-like aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis), (5) Esosyrinx (biserial test with angle between chambers of 90 , radial aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogene- sis); (6) Laryngosigma (biserial test with 180 angle between chambers, radial aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis), (7) Entolingulina (secondary uniserially flat- tened test, oval aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis), (8) Oolina (ball- or egg-shaped test, simple rounded or radial aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis), (9) Fissurina (oval- or ball-shaped, slit-like aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis), and (10) Parafisurina (oval-shaped, slit-like aperture with inner tube on all stages of ontogenesis) (Table 3.1). 3.6 Taxonomic Classification of Order Rotaliida The order Rotaliida is dominant in our material. It includes 65 benthic and 7 planktonic lower taxa. The taxonomic classification of Rotaliida is based on a combination of a significant number of criteria that includes arrangement of test chambers, wall layering and microstructure, presence (absence) of a system of canals, location of single or multiple apertures, and others. Different researchers evaluate differ- ently the significance of individual features, especially among nonionids and elphidiids. Voloshinova and Dain (1952) consider both of them as belonging to one family Nonionoidea, while later Voloshinova (1958) separated them into different families. Loeblich and Tappan repeatedly changed their opinion on this matter. In the Treatise (Loeblich and Tappan 1964), they referred Elphidium to the superfamily Rotalioidea and Nonion to Cassidulinoidea on the basis of a radially radiant wall in the former and granular in the latter. In a later work, Loeblich and Tappan (1981) refer these genera to superfamilies Discorboidea and Nonionoidea, respectively. At the same time, they believed that the nonionids are more highly organized compared to elphidiids. In Loeblich and Tappan (1984), Nonion and Elphidium are included in superfamily Nonionidea and Rotaloidea, respectively, and here the latter are considered to have a higher level of development compared to the former. Mikhalevich (1983) had a similar point of view referring Nonion and Elphidium to independent orders— Nonionida and Elphidiida. Saidova (1981) assigned them to different suborders Nonionina and Elphidiina of the order Nonionida. Similar problems can be noted for other representatives of the order Rotaliida. The ambiguity of the position of individual taxa in the system of order Rotaliida that occupies a high taxonomic position in the evolutionary scheme of foraminifera is associated with a significant variability of signs of the external and internal structures as well as the layering and microstructure of the test wall. These challenges are well illustrated using examples of the Ponto- Caspian representatives.
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    The Project GutenbergeBook of I'r Aifft Ac Yn Ol
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    This ebook isfor the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: I'r Aifft Ac Yn Ol Author: D. Rhagfyr Jones Release date: December 31, 2017 [eBook #56275] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language: Welsh Credits: Produced by Mardi Desjardins the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK I'R AIFFT AC YN OL ***
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    I’R AIFFT AC YNOL: GAN Y Parch. D. RHAGFYR JONES, TREORCI. GWRECSAM: Hughes a’i Fab, Cyhoeddwyr 1904.
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    CYFLWYNIAD. I’R Henadur E. H.Davies, Ysw., Y.H., PENRE, RHONDDA, YR HWN YN GYNTAF A GEISIODD GENYF WNEUD MOES-GYFARCHIAD YN Y FFURF YMA I’R CYHOEDD ODDIAR LWYFAM Y WASG, A’R HWN SYDD YN DYFOD YN FWY HYSBYS O FLWYDDYN I FLWYDDYN YN EI ENWAD A’I WLAD FEL UN O’R BONEDDWYR MWYAF LLENGAROL, DYNGAROL, A CHRISTGAROL, Y CYFLWYNAF Y GYFROL FECHAN ANELWIG HON, TRWY EI GANIATAD.
  • 64.
    RHAGDRAETH. MAE llawer wediei ysgrifenu ar ymweliadau â’r Aifft a Chanaan, o dro i dro, mewn ieithoedd eraill yn gystal ag yn y Gymraeg. Ond credaf fod lle i’r llyfr hwn, am ei fod yn wahanol i’r rhan fwyaf, os nad yr oll, o’i gyfathrach. Bydd yn fwy personol. Yma ceir y golygfeydd a’r digwyddiadau nid yn sefyll allan ar eu pen eu hun, fel pethau diberthynas; yn hytrach deuant atom â lliw myfyrdod y gweledydd arnynt i gyd. Bydd arddull ac argraffiadau meddyliol yr awdwr yn rhan o honynt, ac yn eu gwneud felly yn wahanol i’r hyn ydynt gan neb arall. Nid yw llyfr o fath hwn i’w restru ymysg arwein-lyfrau (guide- books) a phethau o’r fath: llenyddiaeth ydyw, ac fel llenyddiaeth y mae i’w ddarllen a’i fwynhau. Os na fydd y darllenydd yn cydweled â phobpeth, bydd hyny’n glod i’r awdwr ac iddo yntau, fe ddichon; oblegid gwn mai hoffach gan yr awdwr fydd deffro meddwl, a’i gadw ar ddihun, nag enill rhywysgafn-air ogymeradwyaeth teg yr olwg arno, ond byr ei hoedl. Os daw’r llyfr â ni i adnabod yn well y Dwyreinfyd didwrf, cryd yr hil a chryd ein crefydd, bydd hyny yn dâl am ei ddarllen ac am ei ysgrifenu. ELFED. Llundain: Gorphenaf, 1904.
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    Lle mae’r Nileyn llifo’n llachar Buost yn ymdeithydd llesg, Lle bu Joseph yn y carchar, Lle bu Moses yn hesg; Ac wedi gweled byd mor bell, Difyr oedd d’od i Gymru’n well. Un o’m hoff freuddwydion inau Oedd cael gwel’d y lotos pêr, A phob un o’r pyramidiau Tan ei goron wen o sêr: Ond mwyach ni rwgnachaf fi, Mae’r Aifft i gyd yn dy gyfrol di. Yno mae yr Arab hapus, Yno mae y Sphinx diwên; Bywyd yn segurdod melus, Harddwch yn bererin hen: A dyma wlad y rhamant fawr Mewn cyfrol fach Gymreig yn awr. Plygodd hi ei haden dirion Dros fy Iesu y’more’i oes, A hi ofalodd yru Simon Tua’r bryn i ddwyn ei Groes: Gwell yw anghofio’i gorthrwm cas, A chofio’r Aifft y’nyddiau’i Gras. Mehefin, 1904.
  • 67.
    GAIR YN EIBRYD. EG yw d’we’yd i lawer o gynwys y llyfryn hwn ymddangos mewn rhifyne o’r Celt a’r Tywysydd; eto, ceir yma dwsged o bethe’n gwel’d gole’ dydd am y tro cynta’, heblaw fod y lleill dipyn yn fwy trwsiadus eu lliw a’u llun. Prin y b’aswn yn eu cyhoeddi mewn ffurf mor ymhongar oni bai am gymelliade cyfeillion, y penaf o ba rai yw’r boneddwr y cyflwynaf y llyfryn iddo. Ceisiaf yn ostyngedig i’r cynorthwyon fod gryfed a’r cymelliade, fel na bo i farug Siomiant ddifa blagur f’anturiaethe llenyddol. Mae’r un mor deg hefyd imi grybwyll enwe a chydnabod persone a wnaethant fy nhaith yn gysurus a llwyddianus drwy eu caredigrwydd ffodus a diffwdan. Heblaw f’eglwys fy hun yn y cyfanswm o honi, na’r hon nid oes ei gwell y’Nghymru, dyna W. Phillips, Ysw., Cynghorwr W. T. Jones, Ysw., D. Morgan, Ysw., Mri. T. E. Jones, A. Pimm, a Henry Jones, o Dreorci; y Parch. J. R. Davies a’i deulu dedwydd, Caerdydd; J. Davies-Bryan, Ysw., Alecsandria; E. Davies-Bryan, Ysw., Cairo; y’nghyda thri o “o fechgyn” yr ola’, sef Jones, Huws, a Roberts. Dymunaf ore’ deufyd iddynt oll, a bendith gwraig a phlentyn dros ben. Oddiwrth yr AWDWR.
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    PENOD. TUDAL. I. Parotoade1 II. Y Llong a’i Phreswylwyr 6 III. Rhagor am y Criw a’r Swyddogion 11 IV. Bywyd bob Dydd 16 V. Rhagor am y Bywyd bob Dydd 20 VI. Ar y Daith 26 VII. Fy Nyddiadur 32 VIII. Dalen arall o’m Dyddiadur 38 IX. Un arall eto 43 X. Glanio 48 XI. Mewn Dalfa 54 XII. Trem oddiar y Trothwy 59 XIII. Ffawd a Ffwdan 64 XIV. Ar Grwydr 73 XV. Yn y Tren i Gairo 81 XVI. Cairo wedi’r Dydd 88 XVII. Cairo wedi’r Nos 95
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    XVIII. Anturiaethus 101 XIX.Byd ac Eglwys 107 XX. Ar yr Afon 118 XXI. Lle bu’r Mab Bychan 126 XXII. Ar Fin yr Anialwch 134 XXIII. Ychydig o Friwfwyd Gweddill 142 XXIV. Yn Ol 152
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    DARLUNIAU. TUDAL. Yr Awdwr. (Wyneb- ddarlun) Alecsandria.I wynebu tud. 9 Cairo. I wynebu tud. 41 Pont dros y Nile. I wynebu tud. 89 Dan y Palmwydd. I wynebu tud. 105 Myfyrio’r Coran. I wynebu tud. 121 Darn o’r Bazaar. I wynebu tud. 137 Cheops a’r Sphinx. I wynebu tudal. 153
  • 72.
    PENOD I. * PAROTOADE. AN o’wnyn hogyn bychan, yn yr oedran ag y mae plant yn cael eu cyfri’ gan eu rhïeni y tu hwnt o gall, a phob gair a dd’wedant yn cael ei gadarnhau â chwerthin, ei drysori yn y cof, a’i drotian allan er budd y cym’dogion bob tro y ceir cyfle—mi glywes fodraboedd imi yn d’we’yd fy mod yn araf sillebu un o’r Salme ar brydnawn Sul, ac, wedi cael gafel go lew ar yr ymadrodd cynta’, imi droi yn sydyn at ’rhen ŵr ’nhadcu, yr hwn oedd yntau’n ymlwybro drwy’r wythfed benod o’r Rhufeinied ar ei ffordd i’r Ysgol, a gofyn iddo: “ ’Nhaid, ddoi di i’r Aifft?” ’Ro’em ein dau yn bur hy’ ar ein gilydd, er ei fod e’ flynydde yn hŷn na mi. Ti a tithe oedd y dull o siarad rhyngom fynycha’, oblegid yn fy myw y gallwn wel’d y cysondeb o arfer y person cyntaf unigol pan yn siarad â Duw, a’r person cynta’ llïosog pan yn siarad â dynion. Bid fyno am hyny, bu’r hen bererin am amser y’methu sylweddoli cwestiwn ei ŵyr, ac ebai’n hurt: “By-be’ ddeudest ti? I’r Aifft? Be’ ’nawn ni fan hono?” “Wel,” meddwn, “mae acw ddigon o le, weldi;” ac yr wyf yn dra sicr nad oedd neb yn cael mwy o le yn y fan lle’r oedd na myfi. “Sut y gwyddost ti hyny?” gofynai drachefn, gan edrych dros ei ’spectol. “Ond ydi’r Beibil yn deud fod Israel wedi myn’d odd’no,” meddwn; a mi ddarllenes mewn tôn fuddugoliaethus: “Pan aeth Israel o’r Aifft, tŷ Jacob oddiwrth bobl anghyfiaith!”
  • 73.
    A f’ymresymiad ioedd—os oedd Israel “wedi myn’d odd’no,” nad oedd dim i’n lluddias ni i fyn’d a meddianu’r wlad. Beth bynag oedd fy syniad y pryd hwnw am fyn’d i’r Aifft, mi wn imi fod am dros ddeng mlynedd ar hugen wed’yn na freuddwydies am y posibilrwydd o hyny. Ond pan agorodd y ganrif bresenol ei llyged, daeth breuddwyd y plentyn i ben yn rhanol. Mi es i yno, ond heb yr hen ŵr. Y rheswm na ddaethe efe gyda mi i’r Aifft oedd, ei fod wedi myn’d i Ganaan flynydde cyn hyny. Ac o’r ddau, efe gafodd y fargen ore’. Pe bawn yn tueddu at fod yn ofergoelus, gan osod coel ar bethe a elwir yn arwyddion ac argoelion, ni chychwynaswn byth. Heb roi mymryn gormod o liw ar yr helynt, yr oedd fel pe bai ryw impyn maleisus yn chware’ ei brancie â mi o’r diwrnod y penderfynes gychwyn. Os ydych yn ame’, gwrandewch. Gan mai er mwyn y fordeth yn bena’ yr o’wn y’myn’d, rhaid oedd cael llong a fuase’n treulio mwy o amser ar y dw’r na llonge teithio cyffredin. Ond pan aed ati i chwilio am long o’r desgrifiad, bron nad aech ar eich llw eu bod wedi myn’d i waelod y dw’r bob un. O’r diwedd, ar ol i deliffôn Abergorci grygu, ac i gwmnïe Caerdydd ddechre dangos gwỳn eu llyged, dyma genadwri’n d’od fod llong wedi ei chael oedd y’myn’d bob cam i Alecsandria heb ymdroi dim ar y ffordd, a taw gore’ pa gynta’ i mi oedd setlo’n bersonol â’r swyddogion y’Nghaerdydd. Trefn y dydd bellach oedd ffrwst a thrwst a thryste, a mi ro’wn yn y swyddfa’n talu’r llong−lôg yn yr amser a gymer i ambell bregethwr besychu. Ar ol cwblhau hyny o wasaneth, i ffwrdd a mi i swyddfa arall—swyddfa’r Bwrdd Masnach; ac ni welsoch y fath firi erioed. Y’nghanol y casgliad rhyfeddaf o feibion dynion—yn wỳn, a du, a choch, a melyn, yn faw, a sâ’m, a saw’r, o’r Cymro i’r Chinëad, ac o’r Gwyddel i’r Hindŵ; y rhai oedd yno naill ai i gael eu cyflogi, neu, wedi eu cyflogi, yn cymeryd yr ardystiad (nid y dirwestol), ac yn derbyn ernes eu cyfloge—mi es ine at y bwrdd i arwyddo fy nghydsyniad i was’naethu fel talydd ar y llong y bum yn setlo â hi,
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    hyd nes ydychwele o’r fordeth hono; a mi foddlones i dderbyn swllt y mis am fy ngwasaneth. Mi gefes chwecheiniog o ernes cyn symud o’r fan: ond rhyngoch chwi a mine, mae’r cenafon yn fy nyled o’r gweddill hyd heddyw. Prif waith y talydd mewn llong gargo, fel yr awgryma’r enw, yw talu arian y criw fel bo’r angen arnynt; a cheisie’r perch’nogion a’r cadben osod yn fy mhen taw mantes i mi mewn mwy nag un ystyr oedd bod ynddi fel swyddog, ac nid fel teithiwr. Y’mysg manteision erill, golyge y caffe fy nghelfi lonydd gan swyddogion y dollfa wedi i mi gyredd y làn draw. Mi es ar y bwrdd yn brydlon, a thri o ffyddlonied yr achos hefo mi —un o ba rai gychwynodd gyda mi ar fordeth arall dros ugen mlynedd yn ol, mordeth sydd heb “fwrw angor” iddi eto. Rywbryd yn ystod y dydd, cliriwyd y dec, a ffarweliwyd yn gynes; a rywbryd yn ystod y nos codwyd yr angor, a dechreuwyd ageru i gyfeiriad y Sianel. Ond cyn ini adel y Basin yn y Bari Doc—a phrin y tramgwyddai’r un trochwr wrth y basin hwn—pan oedd y llong o fewn haner ergyd careg i’r agorfa sy’n arwen i’r môr, dyma floedd! a bloeddiade! a chwiban! a sŵn! a chrac! A chyn imi wybod fod dim allan o le’n bod, dyma’r cadben yn d’od ataf yn gyffrous, ac yn d’we’yd: “I’m afraid, Sir, you will have another fortnight on shore!” Ac felly bu. Y’mhen y pythefnos i’r diwrnod hwnw y cefnais ar ddoc y Bari. Yn ystod y pythefnos yna, nid o’wn yn perthyn i dir, na dw’r, nac awyr—hyny yw, nid o’wn na phregethwr, na dïacon, nac aelod cyffredin; a phe cyfarfyddase fy nghyfell gore’ â mi ar ’stryd Caerdydd y dyddie hyny, dodase fi i lawr fel morwr ar dramp, neu grimpyn yn chwilio am ’sglyfeth. A dyna oedd y drychineb: angor llong arall oedd wedi myn’d i mewn i ystlys y llong ’ro’wn i arni, a’i rhwygo ychydig islaw i wyneb y dw’r. Bu raid ei haner dadlwytho mewn canlyniad, a’i gyru i’r ysbyty am bedwar diwrnod-ar-ddeg cyn iddi dd’od yn ffit i ail gychwyn. A dyna o’wn yn hala ato, ys d’wedai un o garitors Brutus: pe bai rywfaint o ofergoeledd yn llechu dan fy ngwasgod, mi wnaethwn fy meddwl i fyny’n ddi-droi-yn-ol taw bys Rhaglunieth oedd yma yn dangos y ffordd yn ol i Dreorci, ac nad oedd ond dyfrllyd fedd yn
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    f’aros, os maimỳnu myn’d i’r môr a wnawn. Ond mentrodd un f’adgofio o’r hen air sy’n d’we’yd nad oes boddi i fod ar y dyn ga’dd ei eni i’w grogi! Wel, meddwn, os taw felly y mae, fe gaiff “Dafydd Jones” y siawns gynta’. Ac am saith o’r gloch, yr unfed-ar-hugen o’r mis bach, yn y flwyddyn un fil naw cant ac un, aethom allan gyda’r llanw i’r Sianel ac i’r nos.
  • 76.
    PENOD II. * Y LLONGA’I PHRESWYLWYR. WYRACH yr hoffech wybod am y tŷ yr o’wn yn byw ynddo’r pythefnos nesa’, a’r dynion oedd yno’n byw hefo mi. Nid yw mesuriad y llong genyf wrth law, tae fater am hyny; ond yr oedd yn llai na llong deithwyr, ac yn fwy na llong bysgota. Ymddangose’n fwy yn y doc nag ar ganol y dwr, ond yr oedd o faintioli mwy na’r cyffredin o’r dosbarth y perthyne iddo. Yr oedd golwg anghynes arni pan yn cael ei llwytho, a llwch glo dros ei gwyneb i gyd. Ofnwn taw golwg anghynes fydde arnaf fine hefyd os taw dyna oedd ei chyflwr i fod hyd ddiwedd y daith. Pan es i gysgu’r noson gynta’, yr oedd can ddued a’r glöyn; pan ddeffröes y bore’ cynta’, yr oedd can wyned a’r carlwm. Ni weles erioed drawsffurfiad mor fawr mewn amser mor fyr, oddigerth ar gyflwr ambell i ddyn. Heblaw’r dec isa’, yr hwn a ymestyne o’r naill ben i’r llall o honi, yr oedd iddi dri dec ucha’,—un o’r tu blaen, un o’r tu ol, ac un yn y canol. O dan y dec blaen yr oedd ystafelloedd y criw a’r tanwyr, lle y bwytaent ac yr yfent, a’r lle hefyd y cysgent,—trindod o ddyledswydde ag oedd yn gofyn cymwysdere neillduol i’w cyflawni yn y fan hono. O dan y dec canol yr oedd cabane’r peirianwyr, dri o honynt; a dyma’r lle gore ar y llong i fyn’d drwy rai dyledswydde cynil yn gysurus (megis eillio, er engraff), am mai dyma lle teimlid ei hysgogiade leia’ o bobman. O dan y dec ol yr oedd ystafelloedd y cadben, y ddau brif swyddog, a’r ’stiward. Dyma hefyd lle’r oedd f’ystafell ine, a’r prif gaban lle’r eisteddem i fwyta. Ar y dec canol yr oedd ystafell breifat arall, lle bydde’r cadben a’r swyddogion yn marcio taith y llestr wrth y siart. Mewn cysylltiad â hon yr oedd ystafell yr olwyn. Yr olwyn sy’n llywodraethu ysgogiade’r llestr, ac yr
  • 77.
    oedd ei gofalar bedwar o ddynion, y rhai a gymerent ddwyawr bob un i’w throi. Uwchben y darn yma drachefn yr oedd y bont, yr hon a gyraedde o ochr i ochr ar draws y llestr yn ei man lletaf. Ar y bont y bydde’r gwyliedydd yn cerdded yn ol a blaen dros ei orie gwylio; ac un o’m prif ddifyrion oedd bod gydag e’ am awr ar noson dywell, pan fydde’r môr yn arw a’r llong yn siglo. O’r dec canol i’r dec ol yr oedd pont arall yn rhedeg gyda hyd y llestr, yr hon a arbede ini fyn’d i’r dec isa’ pan fydde arnom eisie croesi o’r naill i’r llall. Ar y dec isa’ yr oedd y goginfa, y fynedfa i’r peiriandy odditanodd, a’r agorfeydd i’r seleri lle cedwid y cargo. Yr wyf y’meddwl imi dd’we’yd eisoes taw llwyth o lo oedd genym y’myn’d allan, ac at y wybodeth yna yr wyf yn ychwanegu taw llwyth o wynwyn a hade cotwm oedd genym yn dychwelyd. Yr oedd y glo i lawr yn y seleri o’r golwg, ond yr oedd y wynwyn yn ffetaneidie uchel ar dop yr agorfeydd y sonies am danynt, ac yn cyraedd i fyny hyd at yr ail bont a rede gyda hyd y llestr. Nid yw’r swyddogion a’r criw y’malio fawr am lwyth o’r natur yma, am ei fod yn ’chwanegu at risg y llong ar dywydd garw. Heb imi fyn’d ar ol y manylion, dyna i chwi ryw syniad am adeiladeth y caban coed y bum yn byw ynddo am y pythefnos nesa’. Bellach at ei breswylwyr. Dim ond un Cymro oedd ar y bwrdd heblaw fy hunan, a than y bwrdd y bydde hwnw gan amla’, oblegid peirianydd ydoedd. Safe’n drydydd yn y dosbarth. Hon oedd ei fordeth gynta’, ac yr oedd yn wrthrych cyfleus iawn i’r bechgyn erill hogi eu tafode arno. Cymere arno wybod y cwbl ond sut i siarad Cymraeg, a mi ges allan cyn diwedd y daith taw siarad Cymraeg oedd y peth gore’ all’sai wneud. Pan aethom allan, yr oedd mwy o wynt, a nwy, a chalch ynddo na dim arall; erbyn ini gyredd Môr y Canoldir, yr oedd ei ddillad lawer rhy fach iddo. Brodor o Ogledd Lloegr oedd y prif beirianwr, a’r mwyaf anodd ei ddeall yn siarad o neb a glywes erioed. Heblaw fod ei dafodieth yn flêr, a’i lais yn debyg i ffliwt wedi cael anwyd, yr oedd ganddo dric annymunol o siarad yn ei wddf, yr hyn a’i gwnai’n boenus i wrando arno. D’wedais “Ië” wrtho ganweth pan ddylaswn dd’we’yd “Nage,” a
  • 78.
    “Do” pan ddylaswndd’we’yd “Naddo;” eto mi gredaf fy mod yn llai cyfrifol am hyny nag am lawer o bethe. ALECSANDRIA. Bachgen o’r un gym’dogeth oedd yr ail beirianwr, a chân ar ei wefus drwy’r dydd. Gwydde am holl ganeuon y dawnsdai, am holl ffraethebion y chwareudai, ac am holl ’streuon y clybie. Clywes ef yn canu mewn cyngherdde droion yn Alecsandria, ac yr oedd yn debycach o gael encôr na neb. Yr oedd ei lais yn uwch na llais pawb, a’i chwerthiniad i’w glywed mewn cystadleueth a’r elfene. Bu’n help i godi f’ysbryd i sgoroedd o weithie, pan y bygythie fyn’d yn is na f’esgidie. O dan y rhai hyn ceid y tanwyr,—y dosbarth isa’u moese ar y llestr. Cy’d ag y bu’r llong yn Alecsandria, ni wnaeth y llabystied hyn ond meddwi, ymladd â’r heddgeidwed, a threulio nosweithie dan glo. Mi weles un o honynt yn taro’r prif swyddog yn ei fedd’dod, ac yn cael ei osod mewn gefyne am hynny. Bu’n gorwedd ar y dec am orie’n rhwym wrth un o’r ateg-byst, yn engraff truenus o “dwyll pechod.” Codasant eu harian i gyd cyn cychwyn ar y fordaith adre’, a gwariasant bob dime goch ar wirod, a myglys, a dirwyon; ac erbyn
  • 79.
    i’r llong gyreddLloegr, nid oedd ganddynt ffyrling ar eu helw, na hatling i ymgroesi. Adwaenid y saer y’naturiol iawn wrth yr enw Chips. Brodor o Norwe oedd efe, ac yn ddyn trigen oed. Un o garitors y llong oedd y saer. Yr wyf yn cofio ei fod yn gwneud rhywbeth i’w hystlys ar ddiwrnod pur frochus, pan y llithrodd tòu o gryn faintioli drosodd, gan ei daro yn ei wyneb nes syrthio o hono’n fflechtan ar y dec. Tybiwyd am foment ei fod wedi ei ladd neu ei foddi; a phan ddaeth ato’i hun, y peth cynta’ dd’wedodd oedd ei fod wedi llyncu llon’d ei safn o hoelion! “Gwell iti lyncu’r mwrthwl eto, Chips,” ebe’r ail beirianwr. Mae’n debyg fod yr hoelion ganddo yn ei safn, yn ol arfer seiri, pan ddaeth y dòn, a chan na welwyd yr un o honynt wed’yn, nid gwaith anodd oedd credu iddynt oll fyn’d i lawr ei gorn gwddf. Byth ar ol hynny, ’doedd dim a yrai Chips allan o’i bwyll yn waeth na gofyn iddo wrth basio am fenthyg yehydig hoelion. Tebycach fyddech o gael y morthwyl at eich pen, oni phrysurech eich camre. D’wedais fod gofal yr olwyn ar bedwar o ddynion, y rhai a gymerent ddwyawr bob un i’w throi. Llanc o Gernyw oedd un, ac ymddangose mor anystwyth ei symudiade a phe buase wedi bod yn labro hyd y funud hono. Cydwladwr i Chips oedd y llall, yr hwn oedd y’ngafel y declein. Am y ddau arall, mae genyf chwedl i’w hadrodd, os deil eich amynedd heb fethu.
  • 80.
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