Uvigerina pygmaea d’Orbigny, 1826

Bergh, Eugene W. & Compton, John S., 2022, Taxonomy of Middle Miocene foraminifera from the northern Namibian continental shelf, Zootaxa 5091 (1), pp. 1-55 : 23

Uvigerina pygmaea d’Orbigny, 1826

Pl. 4, fig. 12

Uvigerina pigmea d’Orbigny, 1826, p. 269 , pl. 12, figs. 8–9; Cushman, 1921, p. 269, pl. 55, fig. 1.

Uvigerina pygmaea Brady, 1884, p. 575 ; pl. 74, figs. 11–14; Bermúdez, 1949, p. 209, pl. 13, fig. 44; Holbourn et al., 2013, p. 600.

Description: The test wall is calcareous and the test is strongly ribbed, short elongate, fusiform, rounded in crosssection, triserial and covered in longitudinal costae with short spines at the end of each chamber. The costae are irregular in length and separated by sutures. Later chambers become inflated with distinct depressed sutures. The aperture is terminal, produced on a long neck, with a pronounced lip.

Remarks: Very few tests of this species were documented, forming a trace component (<1%) in core 2670. Specimens of this species are moderate in size, measuring 0.5 mm in cross section and 0.8 mm in length.

Synonymised forms show variations between tests, with some figured specimens not entirely enclosed by the thick costae, while others are (e.g., Brady, 1884; Holbourn et al., 2013). Some forms, which have also been identified as U. pygmaea , may also be slightly elongated (figs. 13–14 in Brady, 1884).

Life strategy: This species has an upper slope distribution ( Holbourn et al., 2013) under suboxic conditions ( Kaiho, 1994).

Global stratigraphic range: Holbourn et al. (2013) confine the chronostratigraphy of U. pygmaea from the late Eocene to the early Pliocene.

Regional occurrence: This study records U. pygmaea to occur in middle Miocene sediments on the Namibian outer continental shelf, south of the Kunene River mouth.