Palaeontological studies for CRP-3: introduction

The drillhole at CRP-3 was the deepest of the project and offered early hopes of retrieving a long plalaeontological record. However, the reality was that the fossil content dropped off markedly in the lower half of the hole, leaving some tantalising unknowns and uncertainties concerning palaeoenvironments and biochronology. Thus, authors agree that the age of the bottom of CRP-2/2A is early Oligocene, as is the top of CRP-3, but the amount of possible overlap is debatable and even slight underlap is likely. Likewise, despite some palaeontological hints that the lower part of the Cenozoic sequence could be within the topmost Eocene, just how much is uncertain. Twelve papers address aspects of the fossil remains found within the CRP-3 drillcore so far.