Paleobiogeography of Ostracoda and Foraminifera in the China sea area

The distribution of ostracods and benthonic foraminifers in the China sea area is briefly reviewed from the paleobio-geographic viewpoint in this paper.Three regions can be distinguished in the area on the basis of modern distribution data:Region Ⅰ (the Huanghai Sea and the Bohai Sea) with cool and temperate forms,Region Ⅱ (the East China Sea and the northern part of the South China Sea) with subtropical warm-water forms and Region Ⅲ (central and southern parts of the South China Sea) with larger foraminifers and other tropical warm-water forms.The occurrence of Nummulites-Discocyclira fauna in the Eocene deposits of the East China Sea indicates a northward extension of tropical zoogeographical region at the time,whereas the distribution pattern of the Miocene Nephrolepidina-Miogypsiua-Austrotrillina fauna in the South China Sea resembles that of the present larger-foraminiferal fauna.In the South China Sea and Taiwan,a warm-water fauna with Asterorotalia and Pseudorotalia first appeared in late Miocene and then flourished in the Pliocene.