This volume contains 15 English-language contributions to the “Symposium on the Paleogene” organized by Noël Vandenberghe in Leuven (Belgium) in August 2003 under the auspices of the International Subcommission on Paleogene Stratigraphy which is part of the International Commission on Stratigraphy of the International Commission of Geological Sciences. The objective of this subcommission is to encourage research into the Paleogene by establishing working groups dealing with specific problems, in particular the agreement on an international set of stages and series defined by boundary stratotypes, and organizing general symposia and thematic meetings.

An understanding of the biota and climate and their changes during the Paleogene period is of particular interest, since they are transitional between the warm and equilibrated Cretaceous which ended abruptly with the mass ext inction at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary and the modern world. Since the roots of the present-day biotic and climatic conditions date back to the Paleogene, the motto chosen for the Leuven Symposium on the Paleogene is “Preparing for modern life and climate”. The contributions published in this special volume of the “Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen” cover a wide range, from papers synthesizing the evolution of groups of fossils to discussions of regional stratigraphy.

Ph.D.Gingerich demonstrates that the increase in diversity of the vertebrates is greatest during the late Paleocene and early Eocene and stresses the importance of the Paleogene for the understanding both vertebrate history back to the deeper past and forward to the present Two papers are dedicated to the evolution of the foraminiferal faunas at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. Alegret et al. establish a succession of events affecting the foraminiferal faunas in the Tethyan and Gulf of Mexico across the boundary interval. The planktonic foraminiferal extinction patterns during the Campanian-Maastrichtian and at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary studied in detail by El-Sabbagh et al. in two sections of the Western Central Sinai represent “normal” background extinctions below the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, whereas the extinction of 45 species at the boundary level is compatible with the effects of a large meteorite impact.
A series of papers are dedicated to the Paleogene of the Russian Federation. These papers are of particular interest, because they summarize a wealth of data which otherwise are often not readily available. M.A.Akhmetiev & V.N.Beniamovski present the stratigraphic subdivisions based on calcareous nannoplankton, planktonic foraminifera, dinocysts, radiolaria and diatoms of the Russian part of Western Eurasia which are the the frame for the reconstruction of the changing paleogeography of the South European and West Siberian epicontinental seas, the seaways between them and the connections with the Tethys, Atlantic and Arctic oceans represented in a number of tables and sketch maps. These largely new data allow a considerably improved understanding of the dynamics of the paleoclimatic changes affecting this vast area. V.N.Beniamovski describes and illustrates seven benthic foraminiferal ecozones from the Paleocene of the Northern Peri- Tethys reaching from the inner shelf to the abyssal plain including aerobic and hypoxic environments. Radiolaria, diatoms and marine palynomorphs (mainly dinocysts) in the Lower Eocene of the eastern margin of the Urals allow Oreshkina et al. to establish detailed integrated zonations and to reconstruct the depositional environments. V.A. Zakrevskaya discusses the changes in the diversity and composition of the nummulitids and orthophragminids at the transition from the lower to the middle Eocene in Crimea, southern Russia and Kazakhstan. The critical species are illustrated.
The benthic foraminiferal zones of the lower Oligocene of Western Siberia are reviewed by V.A.Podobina who defends the subdivision of the Oligocene into three stages and the use of the Lattdorfian as an international stage. The new subdivision of the Oligocene of Sakhalin outlined by Yu.B.Gladenkov is mainly based on diatoms which allow to date and correlate the various formations and their benthonic assemblages.
In a preliminary study of planktonic foraminifera in the easternmost part of Jamaica, R.H.Fluegeman recognizes an early to middle Paleocene age for the Moore Town Shales and a middle Paleocene age for the Nonsuch Limestone. The restudy of the distribution of the planktonic foraminifera and the calcareous nannoplankton across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary in the now classic Zumaia section (Basque Country) by Orue-Etxebarria et al. leads to a more precise definition of this boundary and of the ranges of some key species. Aref & Youssef and Youssef & Mutterlose discuss the turnover of the benthonic foraminifera and the calcareous nannplankton at the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum in the southwestern Nile Valley of Egypt. The neritic benthonic foraminiferal assemblages indicate eutrophic conditions at this event which lead to the extinction of several marker species, whereas below and above this level highly diversified assemblages characteristic of well oxygenated oligotrophic conditions prevail. The calcareous nannoplankton floras are affected by parallel drastic changes.
The study of the larger foraminifera of the Paleogene succession of the Island of Masirah (Oman) allows to recognize early to middle Lutetian and early Oligocene shallow-marine carbonates (Menkfeld-Gfeller & Decrouez). The critical species are discussed and illustrated. The biostratigraphy of the middle to late Eocene part of the Valle della Contessa and the Monte Gagnero sections in Central Italy is revised by Verducci & Nocchi based on planktonic foraminifera determined mainly in thin section. Problems in the correlation with the magnetostratigraphy and the boundaries of the Paleogene stages are discussed. The numerous illustration of the planktonic foraminiferal species are very useful for studies of Paleogene carbonates restricted to thin sections.