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.
Parafusulina is a genus of foraminifera included in the fusulinacean family Schwagerinidae that were extant during the Permian.
The Fusulinida is an extinct order within the Foraminifera in which the tests are traditionally considered to have been composed of microgranular 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 Textulariida are an order of foraminifera that produce agglutinated shells or tests. An agglutinated test is one made of foreign particles glued together with an organic or calcareous cement to form an external shell on the outside of the organism. Commonly, the order had been made up of all species of Foraminifera with these types of shells, but genetic studies indicate these organisms do not form an evolutionary group, and several superfamilies in the order have been moved to the order Allogromiida. The remaining forms are sometimes divided into three orders: the Trochamminida and Lituolida, which have organic cement, and the Textulariida sensu stricto, which use a calcareous cement. All three orders or superfamilies are known as fossils from the Cambrian onwards.
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.
The Asterigerinacea is a superfamily of Foraminifera included in the order Rotaliida, proposed by Loeblich and Tappan in 1988.
Hantkeninoidea is a superfamily of foraminifera with planispiral or enrolled biserial tests, found in marine sediments of Paleocene to Miocene age, in which chambers vary from globular to elongate and the primary aperture is equatorial in position. It contains one family, the Hantkeninidae.
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.
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.
Discorbis is a genus of benthic Foraminifera, that made its first appearance during the Eocene. Its present distribution is cosmopolitan.
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.
Sigmoilina is 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.
Miliollata is a class wherein Foraminifera is regarded as a phylum that unites the porcelaneous Miliolida, and siliceous Rzehakinidae based on similarities of their tests. Previously the Rzehakinidae were included in the Textulariina based on test wall composition rather than test form. The meaning of Miliolida is retained.
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.
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.
Haurania is a genus of elongated, finely agglutinated benthic foraminifera included in the Spirocyclinidae. The test is free, starting with a brief planispiral coil followed by a straight uncoiled stage. The exterior is imperforate, the interior divided by radial septula or beams, perpendicular to the septa and outer wall. The aperture is cribrate, a series of openings on the terminal face.
Martiguesia is a genus of agglutinated benthic forams from the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) of France. The test is free, the early stage planispirally coiled, becoming nearly straight during later growth. The agglutinated wall is externally imperforate, the interior with a coarse alveolar network. Chambers are subdivided and almost completely filled by irregular radial pillars. The aperture, cribrate.
Sornayina is a genus of benthic forams from the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian) of France included in the Spirocyclinidae. The test is planispirally to slightly asymmetrically coiled, rarely becoming straighter. Microspheric tests reach as much as 3mm in diameter, megalospheric ones are somewhat smaller. Chambers are numerous and are divided into chamberlets by secondary septa.
