foraminifera
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Learned borrowing from New Latin Foraminifera (subphylum name), from French foraminifère (“foraminifer, foraminifera”), from French Foraminifères, coined by the French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857) in an 1826 article. Foraminifère is derived from Latin forāmina (“apertures, holes”) + -fer (“-bearing”).
Inflected forms:
form: foraminifera
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: foraminiferas
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Synonym of foraminifer (“any of a large group of aquatic amoeboid protists of the subphylum Foraminifera, characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm that among other things is used for catching food, often with a calcareous shell with many holes through which pseudopodia protrude”).
pos: noun
examples: This elegant Foraminifera has long been one of the best known of recent species; in its young state it is one of the most abundant organisms in the Cuban sand: in this immature form it appears a Foraminifera of the ordinary spiral type; […]
By the slow accumulation of dead shells, corals, &c., cemented by the smaller tests of foraminifera, the Coralline Crag eventually attained a thickness of fifty feet.
The best method of examining chalk for minute Foraminifera is this: […] The balsam gradually penetrates into the cells, the black rings of the air-bubbles disappear, and the minute, frequently very elegant cells of the Foraminifera become visible.
Several forms were met with [at 2,800 fathoms] which apparently do not occur on the surface, particularly a number of species of a group which is so far as we know entirely undescribed. It seems to be intermediate between the Radiolarians and the Foraminiferas, resembling the former in the condition and appearance of the sarcode and in the siliceous composition of the test, and the latter in external form.
Careful preparation of a fragment of chalk usually brings to light remains, sometimes well preserved, of foraminifera (Rotalina ornata, Cristellaria rotulata, Globigerina bulloides).
Yet more wonderful and beautiful than the Amœbas are the Rhizopoda called Foraminiferas. The hard word Foraminifera means to carry an aperture or opening, and is used as the name of an immense number of tiny creatures living in thin shells with openings in them, though which the inhabitants send out the threads all Rhizopoda have the power of making from the substance of their bodies.
Backboneless animals precede those with backbones and the minute foraminifera—bits of jelly in shells—species with a more complex organisation.
He then passed to the beds next in succession in the series, and exhibited some beautiful photographic prints of their Oolitic structure, as seen under the microscope, shewing tubules growing round a nucleus, generally a fragment of a calcareous organism—in some cases an entire one, as a Foraminifera—but whether the tubules were of animal or vegetable origin, he was not prepared to say.
The articles are diatoms, spiculas, foraminiferas, and polycystines mounted on microscope slides. They […] are claimed to be exempt from duty as specimens of natural history under paragraph 712. […] We find that the goods are specimens of natural history imported as objects of science, and sustain the protest.
In addition to mollusks, foraminiferas, coralline algæ, and echinoids have contributed to the formation of the rock [Key Largo limestone].
On the Caroline Ridge (present water depth 2900 to 3000 meters) radiolarians are more numerous in the Oligocene and Lower Miocene than in the Middle and Upper Miocene. Also, either radiolarians or planktonic foraminiferas predominate in some layers. If radiolarians predominate, then the foraminiferas are impoverised in their specific composition.
Constructed in a modular manner, each chamber of a foraminifera is preformed with an organic layer that subsequently mineralizes.
Some foraminifera also have dinoflagellates living within their tissues that aid in growth through photosynthesis. These foraminifera are much like sophisticated satellites that open their solar panels at daybreak. In the morning, the foraminifera transport the algae out of their shells to the ends of their spines and gooey arms[…]. There, the dinoflagellates capture sunlight and grow through photosynthesis; in the process they use up the foraminiferas' wastes while producing oxygen. As darkness falls, the algae are drawn back inside the foraminiferas' shells. Thousands of symbiotic algae may be housed within a foraminifera’s tissues, making it a floating, dense packet of productivity.
In the Bay of Prony, a foraminifera, Operculina philippinensis, is abundant in the fraction > 0.5 mm where it can compose up to 65% of the assemblages.
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