Diverse lower Miocene to Pleistocene silicoflagellate assemblages occur at Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 495, but many samples are dominated by one or two taxa. Low-latitude zonation can be applied throughout. Cool-indicating Distephanus speculum s. ampl. is only abundant in the upper Miocene; however, relative paleotemperature values (Ts) suggest temperature extremes in the lower Miocene similar to those in the upper Miocene. The lower upper Miocene ap pears to be thinned or missing, because no Dictyocha brevispina Zone assemblages are identified. The lower Miocene assemblages of the Naviculopsis ponticula Zone are an important silicoflagellate reference because of several new taxa and associations.
New taxa and recombinations described herein include: Corbisema triacantha var. nuda n. var., Dictyocha angulata n. sp., D. delicata n. comb., D. delicata var. bisecta n. var., D. longa n. sp., D. longa var.paxilla n. var., D. ornata ornata n. comb., D. ornata africana n. subsp., D. subaculeata n. comb., Distephanus crux parvus n. comb., D. crux scutulatusn. subsp., D. polyactis var. literatusn. var.,Z speculumpatulus n. subsp., Naviculopsis contraria n. sp., N. lacrima n. sp., N. lata var. obliqua n. var., N. ponticula spinosa n. subsp
