How to Create and Submit a Winning Prospect: ABSTRACT; Ecologic Niches of Radiolarians, Planktonic Foraminifers, and Pteropods Inferred from Studies on Living Forms in Gulf of Mexico and Adjacent Waters: ABSTRACT Association Round Table 1597 and northern Alabama through data gathered from 550 oil well logs and 10 measured sections. Two deltaic de- pocenters, a carbonate-shelf complex, and a shallow- basin carbonaceous shale unit are the primary deposi- tional systems in the area. Three genetic intervals have been identified on the basis of thin marine transgressive carbonate units. The lowest (Lewis) interval involves a high-constructive lo- bate delta system whose axes of maximum sandstone thickness extend southeastward from Lee and Itawam- ba Counties, Mississippi, as far as Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Maximum net sandstone thicknesses for indi- vidual lobes average 60 ft (18 m). The middle interval includes a western high-destructive wave-dominated delta complex (Evans) centered in Lee and Itawamba Counties, Mississippi and a more easterly high-destruc- tive wave-dominated delta system (Hartselle) in north- western Alabama. The Hartselle system attains net sandstone thicknesses greater than 160 ft (48 m) along a northwest-southeast trend that extends almost to Bir- mingham. Evans delta-lobe maxima average about half that thickness. The upper interval is dominated by the thick, multistoried Muldon high-constructive elongate delta system (Rea through Carter sandstone units), cen- tered in Monroe County, Mississippi. On the northeast, and laterally equivalent to the Muldon delta, is the Ban- gor carbonate shelf. The Lewis, Evans, and Muldon units represent rela- tively thin, cratonic deltas whose sandstone provenance is north-northwest of the Black Warrior basin, in per- haps a southeastern Missouri source area. Hartselle ter- rigenous clastic rocks were transported from the north- east and southeast and probably have an Appalachian BURGESS, WILLIAM J., Omni-Exploration, Inc., Radnor, Pa. How to Create and Submit a Winning Prospect The oil and gas energy crisis will last until other sources of energy become available in abundance. For much of its hydrocarbon supply, the United States now relies on countries which may be subject to political instability. Therefore, it would appear that the need for good, drillable prospects within the United States will be present for the next 20 to 30 years, so that the crea- tion and marketing of prospects will continue to be of primary importance to the oil and gas industry and to the country. The drilling deal or prospect may be discussed in terms of its elements: reserves, risk, and terms. Practical ways of evaluating reserves include simple volumetric analysis and comparison methods. The study of risk in- quires about the chances for commercial success of a drilling prospect, and involves the geology. Risk may be studied in terms of the presence or absence of control for the structural and stratigraphic elements of a pros- pect. The terms of a deal involve cost; the buyer wants to know what he will pay for how much working inter- est which will yield how much revenue interest. A "winning" prospect is one that will sell fast and has a high chance of bringing in a producing field. Submit- tals should include exhibits which represent clearly the geological reasons for the prospect. Unless the exhibits of maps, cross sections, and other representational data are entirely self explanatory a written description of the prospect should also be included. CASEY, RICHARD, Rice Univ., Houston, Tex., LIN- DA GUST, Australian National Univ., Canberra, AustraHa, ANN LEAVESLEY, Cities Service Co., Houston, Tex., DAMON WILLIAMS, Radian Corp., Austin, Tex., RICHARD REYNOLDS, Rice Univ., Houston, Tex., THEO DUIS, Texas A&M Univ., Marine Facility, Galveston, Tex., and JOAN MUSSLER SPAW, Rice Univ., Houston, Tex. Ecologic Niches of Radiolarians, Planktonic Foramini- fers, and Pteropods Inferred from Studies on Living Forms in Gulf of Mexico and Adjacent Waters Living radiolarians, planktonic foraminifers, and pteropods have been collected during 1972-74 from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent seas using Nansen closing nets, DUCA high-speed plankton nets, water bottles, and plankton pumps by micropaleontolo- gists at Rice University. These samples included other shelled microplankton (diatoms, dinoflagellates, silico- flagellates, mollusk larvae, etc), nonshelled microplank- ton (blue-green algae, dinoflagellates, etc), and larger plankton (e.g., copepods, chaetognaths). Radiolarian, planktonic foraminifer, and pteropod species composi- tions, diversities, and densities were compared with those of other plankton, and were related to physical and chemical oceanographic parameters. Our studies suggest that certain radiolarian, planktonic foraminifer, and pteropod species may be nannoherbivores, bacteri- ovores, detritivores, and/or associated with symbiotic algae and may be characteristic of eutrophic, meso- trophic, or oligotrophic conditions. This information can be applied to studies of the fos- sil record for finer resolution of paleoecologic condi- tions (e.g., paleoproductivities) and for inference of the presence and nature (abundance and diversities) of cer- tain nonfossilizable planktonic components. CASEY, RICHARD, Rice Univ., Houston, Tex., KEN MCMILLEN, Univ. Texas, Marine Sci. Inst., Galves- ton, Tex., RICHARD REYNOLDS, Rice Univ., Houston, Tex., JOAN MUSSLER SPAW, Rice Univ., Houston, Tex., RUDY SCHWARZER, Texas Southern Univ., Houston, Tex., JOEL GEVIRTZ, Tenneco Oil Co., Houston, Tex., and MARY BAUER, Carter Oil Co., Houston, Tex. Relict and Expatriate Radiolarian Fauna in Gulf of Mexico—Implications The presence of living specimens of Spongasterpentas and related spongadiscid forms, Buccinosphaera invagi- nata, and certain other radiolarians in plankton samples from the Gulf of Mexico is evidence of a unique radio- larian population that is composed in part of relict and/ or expatriate forms. These populations may have sur- vived in the Gulf because: (1) the closure of the Tethys seaway by the uplift of the Panamanian block isolated the equatorial and temperate Atlantic waters and blocked radiolarian faunas from entering the Pacific