Taphonomic studies have provided valuable information on depositional and post-burial conditions of sediments. Deep-sea oozes, by definition, are predominantly composed of the skeletal remains of pelagic organisms. These skeletal accumulations are similar in many ways to those of shallow-marine invertebrates, which have been the typical subjects of taphonomic analysis. We consider the problem of obtaining meaningful information from taphonomic analysis of pelagic microfossils, and the relationship between microfossil taphonomy and sediment fabric. Using examples from the biosiliceous oozes of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 751, we evaluate taphonomic concepts developed by previous workers for analysis of macrofossil skeletal accumulations and relate these to our observations of sediment fabric. Differences between the taphonomic processes we infer to have acted on the microfossils in our study and those determined by other workers to affect macrofossils result from the small size, typically planktonic life habit, slow deposition rate, and pelagic depositional setting of the microfossils. We note that taphonomic processes may be responsible for biased data in high-resolution biostratigraphic or paleoecological microfossil studies. Furthermore, the taphonomic characteristics of microfossils in pelagic oozes are a major factor in determining the physical properties of the sediment (eg., porosity, permeability, water content, bulk density, etc.), which in turn influence such processes as fluid migration and slope stability, among others.