The Globigerinina is a suborder of foraminiferans that are found as marine plankton. They produce hyaline calcareous tests, and are known as fossils from the Jurassic period onwards. The group has included more than 100 genera and over 400 species, of which about 30 species are extant. One of the most important genera is Globigerina; vast areas of the ocean floor are covered with Globigerina ooze, dominated by the shells of planktonic forms.
The Fusulinida is an extinct order within the Foraminifera in which the tests are composed of secreted hyaline calcite. Like all forams, they were single-celled organisms. In advanced forms the test wall was differentiated into two or more layers. Loeblich and Tappan, 1988, gives a range from the Lower Silurian to the Upper Permian, with the fusulinid foraminifera going extinct with the Permian–Triassic extinction event. While the latter is true, a more supported projected timespan is from the Mid-Carboniferous period.
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.
Carterina is a genus in the Carterinida. The type species is Carterina spiculotesta Brady, 1884. The genus is described from specimens gathered during the Challenger expedition's circumnavigation of the Earth from 1872-1876.
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).
Globigerinoidea is a superfamily of free-living, calcareous, planktonic foraminiferal protists that have lived in the open ocean since the Eocene. It is part of the suborder Globigerinina.
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.
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.
The Cassidulinacea is a superfamily of benthic amoeboid foraminifera in the order Rotaliida that has been extant from the Paleocene down to the present. Tests are composed of secreted, optically radial or granular, perforate calcite with chambers biserially coiled at least in the early part, Apertures are usually an interiomarginal slit, but may become terminal and may have secondary features.
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.
Gansserina is a genus of planktonic foraminifera, included in the globigerinid family Globotruncanidae, that had a fairly wide distribution in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian). The type species is Gansserina gansseri.
Sigmoilina ia a miliolid genus, referring to the foraminiferal order Miliolida, characterized by an assymmetricall biconvex test formed by strongly overlapping chambers, one-half coil in length, that form a sigmoid (S-shaped) curve in cross section. The strongly overlapping chambers obliterate earlier ones from view resulting in the compressed biloculine appearance, differing from the squat, depressed biloculine form of Pyrgo and Biloculina. The test, as for all Miliolida, is porcelaneous and imperphorate, the terminal aperture, with tooth, the only point of egress and ingress for the animal.
Fischerinidae is a foraminiferal family now in the miliolid superfamily Cornuspiracea that comprises genera that can be free or attached, in which the proloculus is followed by an undivided tubular or spreading second chamber. Commonly, especially in free, i.e. unattached, forms the second chamber is looped around in coils. As diagnostic for the Miliolida the test wall is of imperphorate porcelaneous calcite. The aperture, which is the avenue of egress and ingress for the protoplasm, is terminal; can be rounded or slitlike.
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.
Alfred R. ("Al") 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.
Spirocyclinidae is a family of foraminifera included in the order Loftusiida.
