Foraminifera are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid 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.
The Miliolida are an order of foraminifera with calcareous, porcelacous tests that are imperforate and commonly have a pseudochitinous lining. Tests are composed of randomly oriented calcite needles that have a high proportion of magnesium along with organic material. Tests lack pores and generally have multiple chambers.
The Rotaliida are an order of Foraminifera, characterized by multilocular tests (shells) composed of bilamellar perforate hyaline lamellar calcite that may be optically radial or granular.
The Endothyracea is a superfamily in the foraminiferal order, Fusulinida known from the upper Devonian to the Lower Permian. Probably ancestral to the Fusulinacea.
The Moravamminacea is a superfamily of foraminifera within Fusulinida that comprises genera in which the proloculus is followed by a coiled or straight second chamber, and in which periods of growth result in partial or incipient septa. Contains three families, Caligellidae, Moravamminidae, and Paratickenellidae, with an overall range from the upper Silurian to the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian).
The Nodosinellacea is a superfamily of fusulinids in which the test is of one or more distinct chambers with the wall single layered or with a microgranular outer layer and fibrous inner layer. Differs from the Geinitzinacea in that the latter has the layers reversed.
The Geintizinacea comprises a superfamily of Upper Devonian to Upper Permian uniserial fusulinids, the chamber walls consisting of a dark microgranular inner layer and radially fibrous outer layer. Advanced forms show secondary lateral thickening
The Fusulinacea is a superfamily in the Fusulinida in which the test is spherical, discoida, or fusiform; commonly coiled, less often uncoiling in the late stage, numerous chambers per whorl; test wall of microgranular calcite in one to four layers. Tunnels or secondary foramina may result from partial resorption and secondary deposition may produce chomata, parachomate, tectoria, and axial fillings. Range: M Devonian (Givetian) – U Permian
Lagenida is an order of benthic foraminiferal protists in which the tests (shells) are monolamellar, with walls composed of optically and ultra-structurally radiate calcite, with the crystallographic c-axes perpendicular to the surface. Lagenids first appear in the Upper Silurian and continue to the Recent. They are currently divided into two superfamilies, the older Robuloidacea which range from the Upper Silurian to the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) and the younger Nodosariacea, ranging from the Permian to Recent.
Robuloidacea is a superfamily included in the Protista order Lagenida in which the test wall is either not secondarily lamellar or is only slightly so, as in later taxa.
Nodosariacea is one of two superfamilies making up the foraminiferal order Lagenida. The other being the Robuloidacea. Of these two Nodosariacea is the more advanced, as well as being the younger.
Involutinida is an order of foraminifera included in the Spirillinata found in the fossil record from the early Permian to early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian).
Cibicides is a genus of cosmopolitan benthic foraminifera known from at least as far back as the Paleocene that extends down to the present.
Schwagerina is an extinct genus of fusulinacean Foraminifera that is used as an Early Permian index fossil. The overall shape of the shell or test is fusiform to subcylindrical, the spirotheca, or outer test wall, is thick, and composed of tectum and alveolar keriotheca; the septa are fluted throughout the length of the shell, intense to top of chambers in some, only in lower parts in others; axial fillings highly variable, chomata distinct or thin and discontinuous.
The Globoroatioidea constitutes a superfamily of Cenozoic plantonic foraminifera. It is part of the suborder Globigerinina. Globoroatioidea have trochospiral tests with rounded to carinate peripheries, the walls of which are of finely lamellar, perforate, of optically radial calcite, with an inner organic lining. The surface of these tests is smooth, lacking spines, but may be covered with pustules or pitted, and may have one or more large pores at the center. There is a single primary aperture that may be bordered by an imperforate lip, as well as possible supplementary apertures.
Geinitzina is a genus of Foraminifera from the early Carboniferous (late Mississippian to the late Permian that may have extended into the Triassic. Chambers are uniserial, arranged in a single row, or line. Test wall is double layered. The outer layer is of hyaline radial calcite, and is light in color. The inner layer is of microgranular calcite, and is dark is color. Both layers are secreted by the protoplasm.
Geinitzinidae is an extinct family of Foraminifera from the late Paleozoic included in the Fusulinida that comprises genera characterized by unserial tests (chambers arranged in a single row, or line, in which walls are double layered. The outer layer is of light colored hyaline radial calcite. The inner layer is a dark, secreted, microgranular calcite.
Globigerinana are free living pelagic foraminiferan, included in the class Rotaliata that range from the Jurassic to recent. Test are commonly planospiral or trochospiral but may be uniserial to multiserial and are of secreted hyaline (glassy) calcite. Chambers are flattened in planospiral forms and spheroidal in trochospiral and serial forms. Some have long radial spines, or needles that may be solidly fixed or moveable in sockets. Gametes are biflagellate and are produced in greater number than by bottom dwelling benthic forms.
Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich was an American micropaleontologist who was a professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles, a United States Geological Survey (USGS) biostratigrapher, and a scientific illustrator whose micropaleontology specialty was research on Cretaceous foraminifera.
Foraminiferal tests are the tests of Foraminifera.
