Silicoflagellate stratigraphy of offshore California and Baja California, Deep Sea Drilling Project, Leg 63.

Quantitative study of middle and upper Miocene silicoflagellate assemblages from Pacific Coast Sites 467 and 469 to 472 has permitted identification of warm- and temperate-water biostratigraphic zones and the formulation of a model for relative paleotemperature values (Ts) on the basis of warm- and temperate-genera abundances. Geographic and temporal trends in Ts for Pacific Coast assemblages are indicated. Three new taxa are described: Dictyocha subclinata Bukry n. sp., Mesocena diodon borderlandensis Bukry n. subsp., and M. hexalitha Bukry, n. sp. The ranges in space and time for several species, such as Dictyocha neonautica var. cocosensis and Distephanus mesophthalmus, are increased. Regionally, barred forms of Distephanus stauracanthus become predominant over ringed forms in the upper part of the middle Miocene Distephanus stauracanthus Subzone.