Eighty-one benthic foraminifer species were recognized in Neogene and Quaternary sediments drilled in DSDP Holes 603C and 604.Hole 603C is characterized by low benthic foraminiferal number. All the species present are known to inhabit deep water in the modern oceans. Values for specific diversity vary from 10 to 25 species per sample and are inversely proportional to species abundance. Analysis of the composition of the benthic foraminiferal assemblages indicates that Site 603 was probably situated in a transitional zone under the simultaneous influence of both Antarctic Bottom Water and North Atlantic Deep Water during the Neogene and Quaternary.Hole 604 contains greater abundances of benthic specimens than Hole 603C. Bathyal-abyssal autochthonous assemblages dominate in Recent/Holocene, lowermost Quaternary and Pliocene sediments, whereas most of the Quaternary and the upper Miocene are characterized by mixing of shallow-water and deep-water species. Periods of redeposition of displaced neritic foraminifers appear to be synchronous with periods when there was increased influx of coarser detritic material to the oceanic basin.

Species abundance: R = rare (1-5 %), F = few (5-10 %), C = common (10-20 %), A = abundant (20-40 %), D = dominant (>40 %), - = absent.

Supplement to: Blanc-Vernet, Laure; Moullade, Michel (1987): Distribution of late Neogene and Quaternary benthic foraminifers in the Northwest Atlantic, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 93, Sites 603 and 604. In: van Hinte, JE; Wise, SW Jr; et al. (eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Washington (U.S. Govt. Printing Office), 93, 473-480