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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 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.
Globigerina is a genus of planktonic Foraminifera, in the order of Rotaliida. It has populated the world's oceans since the Middle Jurassic.
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.
Alveolinidae is a family of spheroidal to fusiform milioline foraminifera with multiple apertures and complex interiors in which chambers are subdivided into chamberlets and subfloors interconnected by passageways. As with all Miliolina, the test wall in alveolinids is porcellaneous and imperforate. In living individuals the pseudopodia emerge through the multiple apertures that line the apertural or leading face of the test.
The Asterigerinacea is a superfamily of Foraminifera included in the order Rotaliida, proposed by Loeblich and Tappan in 1988.
Abadehella is a genus of large Upper Permian benthic forams in the order Fusulinida. It is the sole known genus of the family Abadahellidae, for which the diagnosis is the same. Abadahellidae was established by Loeblich and Tappan 1984; Abadahella by Okimura and Ishi, 1975.
The Spirillinida are an order of foraminifera in which the test, or shell, primitively consists of an enrolled open tube, coming after the proloculus, wound planospirally or conically, commonly composed of an optically single crystal of calcite. The aperture is a simple opening at the end of the tube. Advanced forms with more than one chamber may consist of a few crystals, or rarely, a mosaic of crystals of calcite.
Acervulinacea is a superfamily in the Foraminifera order Rotaliida. The Acervulinacea may be free, or able to move about, or their tests may be attached to some substrate. The early growth stage is spiral, followed by irregular chambers that form an irregular mass, disc, or branching structure. The test wall is of hyaline (glassy) optically radial calcite and is coarsely perforate. Apertures are present only as mural pores.
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.
Discorbis is a genus of benthic Foraminifera, that made its first appearance during the Eocene. Its present distribution is cosmopolitan.
Rosalina is a genus of foraminifera included in the rotaliid family Rosalinidae.
Neoconorbina is a genus of recent (Holocene) discorbacean foraminifers related to Rosalina with a low conical trochoidal test, circular in outline. The conical side is the spiral side, on which all three whorls are visible, the final chamber taking up most of the periphery. The umbilical side is flat to concave. exposing only the three to four chambers of the final whorl around an open umbilicus. Chambers on the umbilical side have triangular to platelike umbilical extensions as with other rasalinids. The wall of is calcite, finely and densely perforate on the spiral side, more coarsely perforate on the umbilical side; surface smooth; aperture at the umbilical margin of the chamber, beneath the platelike extension, or folium.
Astrononion is a genus of foraminifera in the family Nonionidae, characterized by an evolute planispiral test with radially stellate structures partly covering the sutures on either side. The test is free, bilaterally symmetrical; periphery broadly rounded; chambers distinct, separated by depressed radial sutures, increasing gradually in size, and usually inflated; aperture a low arched opening at the base of the face of the test. The wall is of finely perforate monolamellar granular calcite.
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.
Globulina is a genus of Foraminifera with an ovate to globular test, included in the Polymorphinidae, Notocariacea, that has been extant since the Middle Jurassic (Callovian).
Buccella is a genus of late Cenozoic benthic foraminifera that made its first appearance during the Oligocene and is found living in recent oceans.
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.
Triloculinella is a genus of Miliolacean forams with a fusiform to asymmetrically globular test. Inner chambers, one-half coil in length, are crypto-quinqueloculine to quinqueloculine in arrangement; The final three to five visible from the exterior. The aperture is an arch at the end of the final chamber, largely covered by a broad apertural flap, which distinguishes the genus from Triloculina, Quinqueloculina and such, characterized by a more narrow tooth. The wall, as for all miliolids, is calcareous, imperforate, porcelaneous.
Foraminiferal tests are the tests of Foraminifera.
References
- Joseph A. Cushman, 1950 Foraminifera, their classification and economic use (4th ed) Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass.
- Alfred R. Loeblich Jr and HelenTappan, 1964. Sarcodina Chiefly "Thecamoebians" and Foraminiferida; Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part C Protista 2. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press.
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