Newsletter 2012/2013 is out

The Newsletter 2012/2013 is out. It has 8 rich illustrated pages and tells what has happened in 2012 and what is planed 2013. Send me an email to get it. Michael [at] foraminifera.eu

Operculina ammonoides

Operculina ammonoides (Gronovius, 1781) - what a nice species we came across in a sample from a beach near Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia.

Find more information at Plummercell Warrnambool Field 25

Plummercell Slide of Greenland Shelf objects

A new plummercell slide of foraminifera and other objects from the Greenland shelf is online. It has been provided by scientists who made a cruise in the Greeland Sea on R.V. Poseidon in 1995. The material was collected with an epibenthic sledge from the bottom of the Greenland Sea at 192m water-depth. The material was sorted and the single objects glued on the 36 fields of the plummercell slide by Karl-Otto Bock.

Find the plummercell slide with clickable single fields and classified foraminifera at Plummercell slide Greenland Shelf
Michael

How to get and collect foraminifera ?

It is not difficult to get foraminifera. Pick them at the beach or extract them from sedimentary rock.

Online is now a detailed description how to do it, from sampling in the field, extraction, picking, identifying to building a collection. So far it is only available in German :)

Go to www.foraminifera.eu/probenauf.html

Tell us about your experience.

5500 images in the database

Our image database surpasses 5500 images.

After 4 years of existence our image database has grown substantially due to the great support of contributors and the highly motivated team. 2012(+2011) we achieved so far our goal to add 4 images a day. To keep the webpage still maneuverable we created different database queries and graphical interfaces

Database Queries:
www.foraminifera.eu/querydb.php
www.foraminifera.eu/taxo.php

Interfaces:
genus: www.foraminifera.eu/AtoC.php
locality: www.foraminifera.eu/locality.html
fossil-record: http://www.foraminifera.eu/foraminifera-fossil-record.html

Please tell us what we should improve and consider to contribute your images.

The locality-interface allowing to choose localities by clicking on the circels on the map covers all oceans. (Example North Atlantic / Western Mediterranean:

Upcoming Exhibition Foraminifera

Foraminifera - witnesses to Earth history

The German version of this exhibition will be shown from 22nd of September till 2nd of December 2012 in Augsburg, Germany.

Find more information at
Foraminiferen - Zeitzeugen der Erdgeschichte

The exhibition may be rented for little money. There is a German and English version. It consists of 15 posters, plastics of foraminifera, binoculars with mounted samples and several other objects.

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Fossil Foraminifera from the South Yellow Sea

Gallitellia

Feifei Wang from the Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology in Qingdao, China has contributed 77 images of foraminifera. They lived on the seafloor of the South Yellow Sea in the Late Quaternary.

See all the images at www.foraminifera.eu/sys.php

New York Times uses foraminifera.eu images

New York Times uses some of our images in its printed and online version.

Take a look at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/science/natures-masons-do-double-duty-as-earths-storytellers.html

It is not a big deal, but better than nothing.

Maastrichtian Foraminifera Working Group

Bolivinoides draco draco The Foraminifera.eu Working Group "Maastrichtian Foraminifera" has started to operate.

A Maastrichtian sample from a core-drill from Hemmoor, Northern Germany has been processed. Stefan Raveling who provided the sample did also the washing, sieving and optical imaging. SEM-imaging was done by Dr. Rosenfeldt and Michael Hesemann.

First 60 images are online at www.foraminifera.eu/hemmoor.php The material is corroded but still shows important details and ornamentation to identify single specimens.

The Working Group "Maastrichtian Foraminifera" will continue to work on this sample, samples from the Laegerdorf Quarry, also Northern Germany and from a drill-core from the Baltic Sea. Other Maastrichtian material is welcome and the group is open for more members. In case of interest you may contact us via email: michael [at] foraminifera.eu

It is planned to meet in November 2012 on a Saturday in Hamburg, Germany to discuss the project and single species. The results will be used for the related "Index Foraminifera Cretaceous" Project.


Ramulina wrightii

5000 images online

On the 1st of May 2012 we added the 5000th image
to the Foraminifera.eu Database.

To find the images you are looking for we created our database-query. It allows to choose from a set of criteria in classification, locality, geological time + others.



To create the poster I chose "Elphidium" to see all the images we have.







Please consider to contribute your images and get your own web-pages within foraminifera.eu. See for example: www.foraminifera.eu/tichenor.php

Upper Cretaceous of the United States

As the number of foraminiferal images increases a new interface for their access is needed. The generalized map of the United States at Upper Cretaceous time - seen above - illustrates the localities, where the samples are from. Moving the mouse over the circles reveals the locality and a click brings you to the illustrations of its forams.

The stratigraphical chart - seen below - illustrates the stratigraphical setting and from which formation the samples are. A click on the coloured areas brings you to the illustrations of its forams.

Do you like this new features and what do you think, should be done better ?

Link to the full page
and its internal links

Paleozoic Foraminifera - 350 million years old

Dr. James E. Conkin and Prof. Barbara M. Conkin gave us specimens and images of Paleozoic foraminifera. Now we integrated some of their images of 350 Mio. year old foraminifera from the Lower Mississippian of Missouri and Illinois, USA. It is planned to work on more Paleozoic foraminifera, though the forms are primitive and not that beautiful as modern ones.

We are very grateful to Michael Popp running the Louisville Fossil Blog who arranged this valuable contact to the Conkins.

Candeina nitida - a unique planktonic foraminifera

Candeina nitida d'Orbigny, 1839 is a unique and easy recognizable planktonic foraminifera. Its umbiliculus is covered resulting in a globose appearance. Along the last sutures rows of pores are placed, which commonly have a marked rim.

It is reported in the fossil record from Earliest Pliocene till recent. It thus allows to distinguish older from younger sediments, namely Miocene from Pliocene.

The specimens shown were found 1815m deep in the Puerto Rico Trench. The tests sank to the bottom as Candeina nitida d'Orbigny 1839 lives in the upper parts of the ocean.

Find more images
here

Newsletter 2011/2012

The Newsletter 2011/2012 is out. It comprises seven rich illustrated pages. Read what has been achieved in 2011 and what is planned for 2012.

To get it as PDF please write to michael [at] foraminifera.eu

Michael