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.
Lukas Hottinger was a paleontologist, biologist and geologist. Hottinger collaborated with the Natural History Museum of Basel (Switzerland).
Textularia is a genus of textulariid foraminifera. It includes many vagile inbenthic species of normal salinity seawater.
Quinqueloculina is a genus of foraminifera in the family Miliolidae.
Carterinida is an order of multi-chambered foraminifera within the Globothalamea. Members of this order form hard tests out of thin calcite rods known as spicules, which are held together by a proteinaceous matrix. As of August 2023, the order contains a single family, Carterinidae.
Cibicides is a genus of cosmopolitan benthic foraminifera known from at least as far back as the Paleocene that extends down to the present.
Hedbergella is an extinct genus of planktonic foraminifera from the Cretaceous, described by Loeblich and Tappan, 1961, as:
Test free, trochospiral, biconvex, umbilicate, periphery rounded with no indication of keel or poreless margin; chambers globular to ovate; sutures depressed, radial, straight or curved; wall calcareous, finely perforate, radial in structure, surface smooth to hispid or rugose; aperture an interiomarginal, extraumbilical-umbilical arch commonly bordered above by a narrow lip or spatulate flap, ... Includes species otherwise similar to Praeglobotruncana but which lack a keel or poreless margin, hence is regarded as a separate genus rather than as a subgenus of Praeglobotruncana as by Banner and Blow (1959).
Globigerinoides is an extant genus of shallow-water planktonic foraminifera of family Globigerinidae. First appearing in the Oligocene these foraminifera are found in all modern oceans. Species of this genus occupy the euphotic zone, generally at depths between 10-50m, in waters which cover a range of salinities and temperatures. They are a shorter lived species, especially when compared to Globorotalia genus. As a genus Globigerinoides is widely used in various fields of research including biostratigraphy, isotope geochemistry, biogeochemistry, climatology, and oceanography.
Peneroplis is an extant genus of benthic Foraminifera in the family Peneroplidae. The genus is also represented in the fossil record.
Cuneolina is an extinct genus of prehistoric foraminifera in the family Cuneolinidae with species from the Jurassic and Cretaceous.
"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.
Linea is a genus of foraminifera belonging to the subfamily Rhabdammininae. It is a monotypic genus containing the sole species Linea simplex.
Foraminiferal tests are the tests of Foraminifera.
Nothia is an extinct genus of foraminifera described in 1964 by Pflaumann, belonging to the subfamily Bathysiphoninae and containing 5 species.
Lana is a genus of foraminifera described in 1977 belonging to the family Komokiidae. It contains three species.
Iridia is a genus of foraminifera belonging to the subfamily Tholosininae. It contains four species. The first species, I. diaphana, was discovered in the Querimba archipelago by scientists Edward Heron-Allen and Arthur Earland, who first described the genus in 1914.
Saccarena is a monotypic fossil genus of agglutinated benthic foraminifera described in 1969, belonging to the subfamily Saccorhizinae. It contains the sole species Saccarena bitubulifera. Its chronostratigraphic range is the Ludlovian, during the Upper Silurian.
Lamina is a monotypic fossil genus of agglutinated foraminifera belonging to the subfamily Ammomarginulinae. It contains the sole species Lamina irreperta, described in 1972.
