1. Tectonic Evolution of the Caribbean Basin and Gulf of Mexico: Constraints from the Paleobiogeography of Greater Antillean Late Cretaceous Ostracodes
T. Markham Puckett, Department of Physics and Earth Science, University of North Alabama
So far in this study, samples containing Late Cretaceous ostracodes have been collected from Jamaica and Chiapas, southeastern Mexico. To date, more than 7100 ostracodes have been collected, and include many new species and at least three new genera. The faunas from Jamaica are compositionally similar to those in Mexico, indicating the possibility that Jamaica was adjacent to Mexico during the Late Cretaceous and has since moved to its present location.
Plans are being finalized to return to Cuba this fall to determine the similarity of the Jamaican and Mexican samples to those in Cuba.
Chiapas, Mexico
Jamaica