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

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

.

Construction material of Foraminifera

Agglutinated Foraminifera build their test of particles cemented together. Some species use whatever particles are available, while other species may select only sponge spicules, diatoms, mica flakes or certain sized particles to build their test.



Rhabdammina abyssorum M. Sars, 1869 from the South China Sea (3465m depth) using diatoms and other particles to build its test. see the whole specimen



Saccorhiza ramosa (Brady, 1879) from the South China Sea (3465m depth) likes sponge spicules to build its test. see the whole specimen

Here we show recent foraminifera. The material used by fossil agglutinated foraminifera may be used for special investigations of past geological events. Such an example are shock-diamonds found in tests after the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. The size of the diamonds found worldwide increase with proximity to the impact crater in Yucatan, Mexico. Source:

Kaminski, M.A., Armitage,D.A., Jones, A.P. (2008) Shocked Diamonds in agglutinated foraminifera from the Cretaceous/Paleogene Boundary, Italy - a preliminary report. In: Kaminski, M.A. & Coccioni, R. (eds). Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on Agglutinated Foraminifera. Grzybowski Foundation Special Publication, 13, 265 pp.

Up for discussion: a new concept for the GENUS PAGES

For each genus we want to create a page with a short text-description and illustrations of the type species. Thus we hope to clarify the specifics of each genus. Below of the general description we show images and drawings of the species for this genus. Above you see as an example the genus page of Globorotalia Cushman, 1927. As we have illustrations for more than 450 genera, it will take months to add all descriptions and type species.

The new concept includes the notion, whether the classification is reviewed by a scientist or not. Anyhow as concepts of genera and species differ from author to author and in the course of time everybody needs to make up his/her own mind. Primarily we show images and drawings, which have an enduring value and secondly addressed names and classifications, which are changing. Reference for our classification and thus further reading is given on each single page.

Any comment on this new concept is welcome.

Michael
Foraminifera.eu Project

some more Genus Pages following the new concept:

Botellina
Elphidium
Globorotalia
Hyperammina
Protobotellina