IN THE ESNA-IDFU REGION, NILE VALLEY, EGYPT 27 



practically impossible. However, because of the close relationship of the fauna, 

 they considered the Montian as the upper substage of the Danian as previously 

 suggested by Munier-Chalmas & de Lapparent (1893), and divided the Paleocene 

 into a lower, Danian and an upper, Thanetian stage. 



On the other hand, Gartner & Hay (1962) recorded the occurrence of a specimen 

 closely resembling Globigerina daubjergensis Bronnimann in the " Tuffeau de Ciply ". 

 This record is confirmed by the present author, and by Berggren (1963) who recorded 

 this species together with Globigerina triloculinoides Plummer and Globorotalia 

 pseudobulloides (Plummer) at the base of the same formation. Berggren quoted 

 Wienberg-Rassmussen (1962) who considered the " Tuffeau de Ciply ", on the basis 

 of its Echinoderm fossil content, to be of definite Danian, and presumably Middle 

 Danian age, and concluded that "... the lower Montian (Tuffeau de Ciply) is time- 

 equivalent with the lower and middle Danian of Denmark ; the relationship between 

 the upper Montian (Calcaire de Mons) and the upper Danian remains uncertain. By 

 extrapolation it is probably correlative in part with the upper Danian, and, in part, 

 younger than known, exposed Danian in Denmark. It is also possible that sub- 

 surface younger Danian in Denmark may fill the missing void in our information 



Loeblich & Tappan (19576), also studied samples from both the type Thanetian 

 and the type Sparnacian and stated that no planktonic Foraminifera were found in 

 the samples from these sections. They quoted Haynes (1955) who had previously 

 recorded Globigerina triloculinoides Plummer, G. pseudobulloides Plummer and 

 G. velascoensis (Cushman) aff. var. acuta Toulmin from type Thanetian samples. 

 Thus they equated the Thanetian with " the highest Paleocene planktonic faunal 

 zone — the Globorotalia velascoensis-acuta Zone ". However, on their correlation 

 diagram (1957a, fig. 28) they equated the Sparnacian with this zone, which they 

 considered as the upper subzone of their " Landenian " angulata Zone, while they 

 regarded the Thanetian as the lower part of this zone, the pseudobulloides Subzone. 



However, examination of Globorotalia velascoensis (Cushman) aff. var. acuta 

 (Toulmin) of Haynes (1955, 1956) from the type Thanetian of England, has 

 shown that it is a reworked Upper Cretaceous Globotruncana species. The state of 

 preservation of the specimen does not allow its specific identification with certainty, 

 but the occurrence of reworked Upper Cretaceous species in the type Thanetian was 

 mentioned by Haynes (1956), and these species have been studied by Haynes and 

 El-Naggar (in press). The same conclusion has been reached independently by 

 Berggren & Barr {in Berggren 1963). 



Nevertheless, this record by Haynes (1955, 1956) was used by Loeblich & Tappan 

 (1957a, b), Bolli & Cita (i960 a, b), and several other authors as a basis for correlating 

 the type Thanetian with the Globorotalia velascoensis Zone of Upper Paleocene age. 

 However, examination of several type Thanetian samples has shown that they 

 contain a mixture of Senonian and Danian forms. The existence of such forms as 

 Globigerina daubjergensis, G. triloculinoides, Globorotalia pseudobulloides, G. trinidad- 

 ensis, G. quadrata, which are clearly Danian in age, with forms such as Globotruncana 

 cretacea, G. linneiana linneiana, G. fornicata fornicata, G. rosetta rosetta, G. tricarinata 



