Middle Eocene benthic foraminifera from Qattamiya area, Cairo–Suez district, Egypt: biostratigraphy, paleoecology, and their relation to the Southern and Western Tethyan Provinces

This study deals mainly with the biostratigraphy, paleoecology and paleobiogeogrphy of the Middle Eocene benthic foraminifera from an outcrop exposed at Qattamiya area, Cairo–Suez district, Egypt. This district is covered by relatively thick Eocene sequences composed of limestone intercalated with shales and marl. Stratigraphically, the oldest rock unit exposed in the study area is the Observatory Formation which is followed by the Qurn Formation. The examination of the collected samples led to the recognition of 27 species belonging to 17 genera and 10 families. Three benthic foraminiferal biozones are recognized Elphidium trompi - Quinqueloculina carinata Assemblage Zone, Bulimina jacksonensis Zone, and Quinqueloculina ludwigi Zone. These local biozones are correlated with their equivalents inside Egypt. Therefore, the age is assigned to the Middle Eocene. To detect the paleoecology of the recorded foraminiferal community, some parameters (Foraminiferal abundance, richness, and the percentages of epifaunal and infaunal species) are calculated. Three local paleoecologic ecozones are proposed signifying a hyper-to hyposaline inner neritic environment for the lower part of the Observatory, the middle shelf with low oxygen conditions for the upper part of the Observatory Formation, and hypersaline inner neritic environment for the Qurn Formation. Recently, multivariate analyses are considered as a valuable tool in establishing the paleoecology and paleobiogeographical provinces of the Paleogene microfossils. In this study, a matrix composed of 18 species from six countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, France, Spain and Italy) is suggested for multivariate analyses. This matrix is subjected to the principal component analysis (PCA) and the Q-mode cluster analysis to detect the possible provinces. Consequently, two significant provinces are detected, the Southern Tethyan Province (Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) and the Western Tethyan Province (Spain, Italy, and France). Based on the similarity index, there is a strong similarity between the two provinces, which proposes a marine connection between them during Eocene.