Biostratigraphy

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY
History of Biostratigraphy. From the Middle Age to the XIX century. Oppel and the birth of the zone concept. Relationships of Biostratigraphy with Chronostratigraphy from the XIX century to the beginning of the XX century. The modern revolution of the 50s and 60s with the first edition of the Stratigraphic Guide and the definition of the modern techniques. The DSDP and ODP project and the revolution of plankton biostratigraphy. The most recent developments: Ecostratigraphy and Quantitative Biostratigraphy.
Methods, techniques, paleontologic groups and applications of Biostratigraphy. Sampling techniques. Biostratigraphic classification: aims, type of biozones and their properties. Biostratigraphic correlation, methods and techniques. Biostratigraphic tools: usefulness of the different paleontologic groups on the basis of Systematic, evolutionary rate, sensitivity to ecologic factors and paleobioprovinciality. Quantitative biostratigraphy: most important methods for biozonation and correlation (with practice). The contribution of Biostratigraphy to oil/ore geology, geological mapping and studies of global changes.

The Biostratigraphy of three selected Systems (one for Paleozoic and two for Meso- and Cenozoic). For each System several key points will be presented and discussed: 1) power of resolution, paleoprovincialism and significance for high resolution correlations of the biostratigraphic tools available; 2) biostratigraphic scales and their calibration; 3) significance of Biostratigraphy for the calibration and definition of the Standard Global Chronostratigraphic Scale, i.e., relationship between Biostratigraphy, Chemostratigraphy, Magnetostratigraphy, Cyclostratigraphy and Sequence stratigraphy.