Book excerpt: This comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge of the biostratigraphy of marine plankton is the work of an international team of eighteen authors. It covers all the major fossil groups that can be used to date sediments and rocks in the time interval Late Mesozoic to Holocene. Altogether more than 3200 taxa are considered, almost all of which are illustrated and depicted on range charts, making the book a valuable work of reference in the earth sciences. For ease of reference by specialists interested in either calcareous or non-calcareous microfossils, the original work is now divided into two independent volumes. Volume I covers the calcareous microfossils and includes planktic foraminifers, calcareous nannofossils and calpionellids.