Planktonic foraminifera are widely used in marine biostratigraphy thanks to their small size, limited stratigraphic range and abundance in oceanic sediments. The utility of planktonic foraminifera in biostratigraphy was first fully recognised within the Caribbean region during the middle of the 20 th century. The area was critical for the subsequent development of the low latitude biostratigraphic schemes and remains fundamental for modern day biogeochronologies. This study presents a historical review of the Oligo-Miocene component of these biostratigraphic schemes, including the first proposed scheme of Cushman and Stainforth (1945) and the subsequent development. The work of Hans Bolli and Walter Blow is particularly highlighted due to their heavy influence on modern day biostratigraphy, including these authors initially recognising the biostratigraphic utility of a number of bioevents still applied today. These Caribbean-centric schemes are correlated to the modern-day low latitude biogeochronology of Wade et al. (2011), with this synthesis highlighting that a number of bioevents (e.g. Top Paragloborotalia kugleri and Top Catapsydrax dissimilis) have been applied consistently since their initial recognition. This in turn allows the recognisability of these bioevents to be deduced based on how consistently applied each datum has been. In addition, the range charts of six studies focusing heavily on the Caribbean have been reassessed to determine whether there is potential to apply a given bioevent, and the original author merely did not recognise the biostratigraphic utility of the species or favoured another bioevent. In considering this historical review, a number of amendments to Wade et al. (2011) and future priorities to planktonic foraminifera biogeochronologies are suggested. Most notably, the re-introduction of Base Globigerinatella insueta as a primary bioevent due to the historical biostratigraphic importance of this species. This event now defines early Miocene Subzone M3b (Gt. insueta/Ct. dissimilis PRZ) dividing Zone M3 into an upper Subzone M3b (Base Gt. insueta) and lower Subzone M3a (Base Globigerinatella sp.). Finally, the Miocene to Recent timescale of Wade et al. (2011) has been recalibrated following more recent updates to the magnetostratigraphy (

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We document the biostratigraphic ranges of 18 taxa of planktonic, 33 calcareous benthic and 11 agglutinated benthic foraminifera from the Lower to lower MiddleMiocene ones (N4/M1 to N9/M6) of three exploration wells in the Eastern Venezuela Basin and an outcrop section from Rio Oregano near the type locality of the Carapita Formation of eastern Venezuela and the correlative Cipero Formation of Trinidad. The generally superior preservation of material in the outcropping Cipero Formation has been used as a standard of reference thereby enhancing identification of specimens in the generally more poorly preserved material in the subsurface Carapita Formation of Venezuela. The biostratigraphic data provided here serve as the basis for a reconstruction of the geohistory of the Eastern Venezuelan Basin including determination of multiple unconformities (and duration of associated hiatuses) and paleobathymetric history of the basin in a companion paper (Sanchez et al. 2014).

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