Miocene Foraminifera - hundreds of images added

   

A mayor work on Miocene Foraminifera is the revision of D'Orbignys "The Fossil Foraminifera of the Tertiary Basin of Vienna". Its hundreds of SEM images are now integrated in our database courtesy of the Geological Survey of Austria at

www.foraminifera.eu/papsch.php

Cheers Michael

 

Foraminifera from the Santos Basin off Brazil

Foraminifera from the Santos Basin off Brazil

Micael Bergamaschi provided more than 40 SEM-images of Pleistocene age from the Santos Basin off Brazil like the Bulmina below. The images are published in


Bergamaschi, M.L., 2012: Interpretações paleoambientais do Pleistoceno Médio com base em foraminiferos bentonicos da Bacia de Santos – Brasil. Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Bacharel em Ciências Biológicas) Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS, São Leopoldo – RS 120p (in portuguese)

It can be downloaded  from http://www.foraminifera.eu/bergamaschi.html

Reophax agglutinatus Cushman 1913

  
a foraminifer prefering to build its test 

by using other empty foram tests 

Reophax agglutinatus Cushman 1913

More details at

www.foraminifera.eu/singleplum.php?no=1006819&aktion=suche

Adrian sends sand

 
in the mail these days was a little box from Adrian, UK - a long time contributor to the Foraminifera.eu project.

The box contains a couple of small bags with sand. A closer look through the binocular reveals that these sands mainly consist of shells, tests and fragments of bigger organism-remnants. These sands are rich in foraminifera. My estimate is that there are hundreds if not thousands of forams in each tiny bag.

The forams lived once in Scotland, Tenerife,  Malta, Crete  and Bermuda.

It gives us a lot to find und to have fun.

Great job Adrian ! 

Mallorca foraminifera - optical images

Mallorca foraminifera - optical images

 

Elphidium jenseni (=Elphidium complanatum)   Size: 0,6mm

New contributor Roland emailed quite detailed optical images of forams found at the beach of Alcudia, Mallorca - a sample I sent him. We intend - as time allows - to portray samples of the Meditteranean by imaging the abundant species and do some basic counting.

Find more images at

http://www.foraminifera.eu/alcudia.php

 

Michael

Google maps on foraminifera finds

Personalized google maps with flags on each locality of foram finds have been implemented. They have full functionality like zooming in and out, changing map-type ... A click on each flag opens an info-window from where a link leads to the locality-page with all images. Maps are available for the geological periods Carboniferous to recent. Please tell me, what you think about it and how it should be improved.

www.foraminifera.eu/locality.php

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

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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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

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

579 Forams from Greece on a single slide

The huge foram collection of coworker Karl-Otto Bock is housed in single plummercell-slides, where forams are neatly arranged in single fields. We have started to put his collection online with this plummercell slide. It is filled primarily with miliolid specimens found at the beach of Malia on Crete - a Greece island. The single fields are clickable and are integrated into the foraminifera.eu database.



To see more follow the link and click on the single fields of the

Plummercell slide from Malia, Crete

.