An introduction to the Bowden shell bed, southeast Jamaica

The Bowden shell bed of southeast Jamaica is one of the most fossiliferous deposits in the late Cenozoic of the Antillean region. It was discovered in 1859 by Lucas Barrett, who considered it to be Miocene in age. The Eocene Yellow Limestone was subsequently miscorrelated with the shell bed by Sawkins. The molluscan fauna of the Bowden shell bed was monographed by Woodring in the 1920s, whose interpretations of its palaeoecology are still valid, although he did not visit Bowden until 1952. Robinson divided the Bowden formation (or series, beds or marls) of earlier authors into three lithostratigraphic units; the Bowden Formation sensu stricto (Pliocene), the Old Pera beds (early Pleistocene) and the Port Morant Formation (late Pleistocene). The currently accepted Pliocene age of the Bowden shell bed was determined by reference to planktic microfossil zonations, particularly of foraminifers.