Abstract
Upper Mesozoic and Cenozoic pelagic sediments in the central Pacific Ocean contain occasional horizons with reworked and displaced fossils produced by organisms that once lived in neritic shallow-water environments. The flux of neritic fossils was restricted to eight intervals of low eustatic sea level during Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic times. They were eroded from shoals along the flanks of volcanic highs which often supported tropical islands and which since then have subsided.