Invertebrate paleontology is sometimes described as invertebrate paleozoology or invertebrate paleobiology. Whether it is considered to be a subfield of paleontology, paleozoology, or paleobiology, this discipline is the scientific study of prehistoric invertebrates by analyzing invertebrate fossils in the geologic record.
Foraminifera are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly an external shell of diverse forms and materials. Tests of chitin are believed to be the most primitive type. Most foraminifera are marine, the majority of which live on or within the seafloor sediment, while a smaller number float in the water column at various depths, which belong to the suborder Globigerinina. Fewer are known from freshwater or brackish conditions, and some very few (nonaquatic) soil species have been identified through molecular analysis of small subunit ribosomal DNA.
Joseph Augustine Cushman was an American micropaleontologist and academic. He specialized in the study of marine protozoans (foraminifera) and became the foremost foraminiferologist of the first half of the twentieth century, developing to a "world-famous system of discovering petroleum deposits". He also was a founding father of Kappa Delta Phi fraternity.
Elphidium is an abundant genus of foraminifera. Species can be found from coastal regions out to the continental slope, and in all temperature ranges. Like other forams, fossils from different species are used to date rocks. The taxonomy of the species within this genus is disputed due to the high variability of some species.
Félix Dujardin was a French biologist born in Tours. He is remembered for his research on protozoans and other invertebrates.
Lukas Hottinger was a paleontologist, biologist and geologist. Hottinger collaborated with the Natural History Museum of Basel (Switzerland).
Properca is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine perciform fish that lived in Europe throughout much of the Cenozoic, from the Paleocene to the Miocene epochs.
Quinqueloculina is a genus of foraminifera in the family Miliolidae.
Cibicides is a genus of cosmopolitan benthic foraminifera known from at least as far back as the Paleocene that extends down to the present.
Astrononion is a genus of foraminifera in the family Nonionidae, characterized by an evolute planispiral test with radially stellate structures partly covering the sutures on either side. The test is free, bilaterally symmetrical; periphery broadly rounded; chambers distinct, separated by depressed radial sutures, increasing gradually in size, and usually inflated; aperture a low arched opening at the base of the face of the test. The wall is of finely perforate monolamellar granular calcite.
Clavulina is a genus of aggulinated benthic foraminiferans with an elongate test. The early stage is triserial and triangular in section, the later stage uniserial and rectilinear, with angular to rounded section. In some species agglutinated walls have considerable calcareous cement. Septa are secondarily doubled as a result of imperforate floors, which are added as new chambers are formed. Walls contain fine bifurcating canaliculi within, openings of which are sealed internally by an inner organic lining, and externally by the imperforate surface layer of the wall. The aperture is interiomarginal in the early triserial stage, terminal and rounded in the adult.
Allan Wie Hwa Bé was a micropaleontologist. He was considered a pioneer in research about planktonic foraminiferal ecology. He also served as president of the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research.
Alfred R. Loeblich Jr (1914–1994) was an American micropaleontologist. He was married to Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich and the two co-authored a number of important works on the Foraminifera and related organisms.
Alva Christine Ellisor (1892–1964) was a geologist and one of the first female stratigraphers in North America.
Peneroplis is an extant genus of benthic Foraminifera in the family Peneroplidae. The genus is also represented in the fossil record.
Cyclammina is a genus of foraminifers in the family Cyclamminidae. Most species are extinct, but there are a few that are extant.
Cuneolinidae is an extinct family of prehistoric foraminifera in the order Loftusiida, in the suborder Ataxophragmiina and superfamily Ataxophragmioidea.
Yoshiaki Ozawa was a paleontologist and geologist. After graduating from the University of Tokyo (when Tokyo Imperial University in 1923, Ozawa was hired by faculty as an assistant and become a full-time lecturer next year. His early work earned him a fellowship in the Geological Society of Japan and proved that Akiyoshi plateau had a reverse stratigraphy. He became an associate professor in 1925 and got the Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy in 1926. The foraminifera genus "Staffella Ozawa" is named after him.
Earlandia was a genus of prehistoric foraminifera.
Bruce William Hayward is a New Zealand geologist, marine ecologist, and author. He is known as a leading expert on living and fossil foraminifera.
