Xenophyophorea is a clade of foraminiferans. Xenophyophores are multinucleate unicellular organisms found on the ocean floor throughout the world's oceans, at depths of 500 to 10,600 metres. They are a kind of foraminiferan that extract minerals from their surroundings and use them to form an exoskeleton known as a test.
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.
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "the depths." Organisms living in this zone are called benthos and include microorganisms as well as larger invertebrates, such as crustaceans and polychaetes. Organisms here generally live in close relationship with the substrate and many are permanently attached to the bottom. The benthic boundary layer, which includes the bottom layer of water and the uppermost layer of sediment directly influenced by the overlying water, is an integral part of the benthic zone, as it greatly influences the biological activity that takes place there. Examples of contact soil layers include sand bottoms, rocky outcrops, coral, and bay mud.
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 metres. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. They are among the flattest, smoothest, and least explored regions on Earth. Abyssal plains are key geologic elements of oceanic basins.
Gromia is a genus of protists, closely related to foraminifera, which inhabit marine and freshwater environments. It is the only genus of the family Gromiidae. Gromia are ameboid, producing filose pseudopodia that extend out from the cell's proteinaceous test through a gap enclosed by the cell's oral capsule. The test, a shell made up of protein that encloses the cytoplasm, is made up of several layers of membrane, which resemble honeycombs in shape – a defining character of this genus.
Lukas Hottinger was a paleontologist, biologist and geologist. Hottinger collaborated with the Natural History Museum of Basel (Switzerland).
The Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) is located in international waters, adjacent to the Irish continental margin. The PAP lies beyond the Porcupine Bank's deepest point and is southwest of it. It has a muddy seabed, with scattered abyssal hills that covers an area approximately half the size of Europe's landmass. Its depth ranges from 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) to 4,850 m (15,910 ft).
Carterina is a genus in the family Trochamminidae, composing its own subfamily Carterininae. The genus is described from specimens gathered during the Challenger expedition's circumnavigation of the Earth from 1872-1876.
Elphidium williamsoni is a species of foraminiferans belonging to the family Elphidiidae. Elphidium williamsoni is found in abundance around the coasts of the UK, predominantly in the lower end of the coast.
Miliamellus is a genus of Cenozoic benthic foraminifera with tests made of imperforate opaline silica. It is the only genus in the order Silicoloculinida and the family Silicoloculinidae. It is sometimes referred to by the junior synonym Silicoloculina.
Ammonia tepida is a benthic foraminifer living in the sediment of brackish waters. It is very similar to Ammonia beccarii, but the latter lives on the surface of red algae. Once considered a globally widespread taxon, a recent genetic and morphological study has revealed that many of what were once considered members of A. tepida in fact represent other species of Ammonia, primarily Ammonia veneta, with true specimens of A. tepida only being found in Atlantic waters, off the coast of the Americas.
Ammonia is a genus of marine foraminifers. It is one of the most abundant foraminifer genera worldwide and occurs in sheltered and shallow marine intertidal environments, sometimes in brackish waters.
"Monothalamea" is a grouping of foraminiferans, traditionally consisting of all foraminifera with single-chambered tests. Recent work has shown that the grouping is paraphyletic, and as such does not constitute a natural group; nonetheless, the name "monothalamea" continues to be used by foraminifera workers out of convenience.
Tessa Michelle Hill is an American marine geochemist and oceanographer. She is a professor at the University of California, Davis, and a resident professor at its Bodega Marine Laboratory. She is a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and in 2016 was named a Leshner Public Engagement Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In that year she also received the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
The Marne di Monte Serrone is a geological formation in Italy, dating to roughly between 181 and 178 million years ago, and covering the early and middle Toarcian stage of the Jurassic Period of central Italy. It is the regional equivalent to the Toarcian units of Spain such as the Turmiel Formation, units in Montenegro, such as the Budoš Limestone and units like the Tafraout Formation of Morocco.
Occultammina is a genus of xenophyophorean foraminifera known from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is notable for being the first known infaunal xenophyophore as well as for being a possible identity for the enigmatic trace fossil Paleodictyon.
Bruce William Hayward is a New Zealand geologist, marine ecologist, and author. He is known as a leading expert on living and fossil foraminifera.
Foraminiferal tests are the tests of Foraminifera.
Global paleoclimate indicators are the proxies sensitive to global paleoclimatic environment changes. They are mostly derived from marine sediments. Paleoclimate indicators derived from terrestrial sediments, on the other hand, are commonly influenced by local tectonic movements and paleogeographic variations. Factors governing the Earth's climate system include plate tectonics, which controls the configuration of continents, the interplay between the atmosphere and the ocean, and the Earth's orbital characteristics. Global paleoclimate indicators are established based on the information extracted from the analyses of geologic materials, including biological, geochemical and mineralogical data preserved in marine sediments. Indicators are generally grouped into three categories; paleontological, geochemical and lithological.
Frances Lawrance Parker was an American geologist and micropaleontologist. She is credited for writing, co-writing, and publishing many academic books and articles with a focus of paleoceanography and micropaleontology. She had been awarded for her extensive contributions to the modern-day knowledge of benthic and planktonic foraminifera.
