The role of the Larger Benthic Foraminifera (LBF) as major faunal contributors in shallow-marine environments is known for a long time by the scientific community and they have long been employed as biostratigraphic markers, with emphasis on the Tethyan Paleocene-Miocene. During the last decades, also their employ as signal for depth and environment of deposition has been successfully investigated and developed. Today, more and more research workers are focusing their attention with outstanding results on the practical use of LBF for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, ecologic scenarios and paleoclimatic interpretations along with a progressive increase of multidisciplinary approaches and innovative implementation of equipments (e.g. the Micro Computer Tomography, that are making possible advanced taphonomic and paleobiological investigations).

Nevertheless, the employ of larger foraminifera for biostratigraphic purposes is a subject far from being exhausted and its investigation cannot be left behind. After over a decade since the establishment of the today routinely employed Shallow Benthic Zonation (SBZ), a considerable amount of further data is now available, and advances in zonal definition, subdivision into subzones, the correlation of some unresolved boundaries with magnetostratigraphy and changes linked to the redefinition of some Early Paleogene GSSPs have already been proposed or can be postulated for the next years. Therefore, the SBZ necessitate to be revised and extended, also integrating data from paleobiogeographic domains other than Tethys. The possibility to cover a wider stratigraphic range (i.e. to include the Cretaceous) should be taken into account too.

In this frame, we particularly invite contributions concerning the following topics:

- multidisciplinary approach (e.g. larger foraminifera vs. magnetostratigraphy, isotopes, other biozonal scales) to stratigraphic sections
- revision of biostratigraphic ranges
- new biogeographic records
- poorly known or as yet undescribed taxa with biostratigraphic potential
- systematic, paleobiology and taphonomy contribute to the biostratigraphy
- preliminary proposals for the revision of the existing biozones, including the correlation with other scales
- preliminary proposals of new biozones