Introduction

Benthic foraminifera from three distinct regions of Venezuela are dealt with in this volume (Fig. 65). They are from the Serrania del Interior area, eastern Venezuela; the Falcon Basin and the Maracaibo Basin, both western Venezuela. Unlike in Trinidad where there exists from Barremian to Middle Miocene a nearly continuous record of described and illustrated planktic and benthic foraminifera and their stratigraphic distribution related to planktic zonal schemes, comparable data from Venezuela are to date less complete.

The Early Cretaceous stratigraphy in eastern Venezuela is well documented, mainly by the investigations of Rod & Maync (1954) and Guillaume, Bolli & Beckmann (1972). Based on numerous surface sections from the Serrania del Interior and the islands off Puerto la Cruz, the latter authors charted the distribution of 101 benthic foraminiferal species from Barremian to Albian, tied into a locally developed predominantly planktic foraminiferal zonal scheme. The benthic taxa were identified partly by direct comparison with types from neighbouring Trinidad or were based on published illustrations. In contrast to the Trinidad Early Cretaceous faunas those from eastern Venezuela were not described and illustrated.

On the Late Cretaceous to Eocene of eastern Venezuela three publications deal with benthic foraminifera. One is by Cushman (1947) describing and illustrating a stratigraphically mixed, predominantly benthic fauna from the Upper Cretaceous to Paleocene Vidono Formation of the Santa Anita Group. The samples available to Cushman for his study originated from widely separated localities: The Rio Querecual in the southern foothills of the Serrania del Interior, the vicinity of Puerto la Cruz and Borracha Island near Puerto la Cruz.