The study tests 3 hypotheses: a) that late Miocene to early Pliocene constriction and complete closure of the Central American Seaway (CAS), caused decreased productivity in the Caribbean, b) reduced paleoproductivity resulted in decreased diversity in the Caribbean and, c) this decreased availability of food (reduced paleoproductivity) was responsible for larger mean test size in the three most common benthic foraminiferal species Epistominella exigua, Oridorsalis umbonatus and Globocassidulina subglobosa. The hypotheses are tested by applying correlation analysis to 7 groups of...