The planktonic foraminifers biostratigraphy is crucial in order to precise the timing of the main tectonosedimentary and palaeogeographic events through the evolution of the Bajo Segura Basin. Our results indicates that the marine stratigraphic record of the basin spans from the earliest late Miocene to the early Pliocene. For this temporal interval, all the recent, astronomically calibrated, planktonic foraminifers biozones had been documented. The oldest depositional stage in the basin is marked by a regional-scale transgression in coincidence with the MMi9 biozone (early Tortonian). The youngest basin-wide marine episode occurs at the MPl4a biozone (Zanclean). The Messinian Salinity Crisis, as a specially noticeable event in the Mediterranean domain, is bracketed between the last Messinian biozone (MMi13c) and the first Pliocene biozone (MPl1).

Este estudio se ha realizado en el marco del proyecto de investigación CGL2007-65832 (MCyT), la Beca FPU AP2005-1908 y el grupo de investigación Cambios Paleoambientales de la Universidad de Alicante (VIGROB-167).