Timing of Shell Size Increase and Decrease of the Planktic Foraminifer Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (Sinistral) During the Pleistocene, IODP Exp. 303 Site U1304, the North Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

We made shell size measurements of the planktic foraminifer Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (sinistral) using samples from IODP Site U1304, the North Atlantic. We found that mean and maximum shell sizes began to increase around 1.1 Ma, and that several episodic changes in test size occurred during 0.6 - 0.35 Ma. Test size reached a maximum during the late Quaternary. Based on correlation with previous investigations, we have confirmed that these changes in fo- raminiferal shell size occurred on an inter-ocean scale.