Occurrence of Globorotalia cavernula in the water column and sediments: global compilation of sightings and abundances

Here, we present a global compilation of previously reported sightings of the rare planktic foraminifer Globorotalia cavernula Bé, 1967 as well as new observations of live-collected specimens from the Southern Ocean (Subantarctic south of Africa). The goal of this synthesis is to provide the geographic and stratigraphic context needed to investigate the past and present-day distributions of this rare but possibly under-recognized species. The previous records include modern occurrences in the water column (collected by plankton net tows and a single sediment trap) and seafloor sediments ranging in age from recent to Eocene. Seafloor sediment samples were collected by dredge, sediment grabs and core-tops. Deeper sediments came from drilling cores. Existing databases provided a foundation for this compilation, particularly ForCenS for surface sediments (Siccha & Kucera, 2017) and FORCIS for water-column collections (de Garidel-Thoron et al., 2022; Chaabane et al., 2022, 2023). These records were supplemented with occurrences from the literature, PANGEA, and cruise reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) / Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). Searches were conducted in October 2022 using Google Scholar, GBIF, EOL (Encyclopedia of Life, "http://eol.org", which includes records from the Smithsonian NMNH). Where available, we include information on the abundance of G. cavernula in each collection, and indicate whether photographic evidence (or drawings) could be found to support the identification. Globorotalia crozetensis Thompson, 1973 (reclassified as G. cavernula by Brummer & Kučera, 2022) and closely related Globorotalia petaliformis Boltovskoy, 1974 were also included in compilation.