ABSTRACTCretaceous to Palaeogene sedimentary series in two long, continously recovered boreholes from the Senegal coastal basin and adjacent Cape Verde deep‐sea basin have been compared by mineralogical, geochemical, electron‐microscope and microprobe investigations. The transition between the diagenetic influences related to the depth of burial and the palaeoenvironmental influences, identified in the thick coastal‐basin successions, is complicated by the tectonic instability of the margin during periods of high subsidence rates and crustal thinning. As the deep‐sea basin sediments are only slightly affected by diagenetic changes, the comparison between the deep sea and coastal series allows the relative effects of lithostatic pressure, tectonics and other palaeoenvironmental factors to be evaluated. The disappearance of synsedimentary signatures (tectonics, climate, depositional conditions, etc.) expressed by clay mineralogy occurs below 4.5 km; there are no significant diagenetic changes in sediments at less than 2 km depth. By comparing identical time slices in coastal and deep‐sea basins, it is possible to recognize from the clay stratigraphic record the main African detrital sources, the hot and often semi‐arid character of the continental climate during the Cretaceous, the existence of minor but extensive stages of tectonic activity (Barremian‐late Aptian, late Albian‐early Cenomanian), the temporary existence of semi‐closed basins on the shelf (Late Cretaceous, early Palaeogene) and the complexity of transport and sedimentation relationships between proximal and di