Foraminifera

Marcelle BouDagher-Fadel

HOW TO RECOGNIZE A PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERA

By its simplicity
Lacks the additional skeletal Structures characteristics of Benthic foraminifera

No plugs No pillars Aperture simple No canal Although the aperture may be modified exteriorly by apertural system lips, portici, tegillum.)
No internal structure, or tooth-plates in thin sections or solid, lips sticking out or in from the simple aperture

Planktic (planktonic) foraminifera can permanently float or drift in the water column. They are very abundant in inner to outer neritic sediments

They are widespread and have had rapidly evolving lineages

Wall texture of planktonic foraminifera

Spinose

Cancellate - spinose

Hastigerina

Globigernoides

cancellate

smooth

Pulleniatina

muricate Morozovella

Appearance of first planktonic foraminifera

keel

elongate chamber extensions

biserial
wide umbilicus Large perforations Muricae fusing

keel

Dorsal view

Umbilical view

Dorsal apertures

spines

Globorotalia
Globigerinoides

Peripheral view
aperture

Umbilical view

 Planktic/Benthic
Paleodepth: planktic forams not in coastal zones (neritic), P/B >>100 in open ocean Dissolution: planktic forams fragment, dissolve before benthics; deep-sea floor low P/B values indicate depth below lysocline Surface productivity: more difficult, but at higher food supply productivity (or: in shallower waters) more benthic foraminifera

BouDagher-Fadel, M.K., Banner, F.T. and Whittaker, J.E., 1997. Early Evolutionary History of Planktonic Foraminifera, British Micropalaeontological Society Publication Series, Chapman and Hall Publishers, pp 269. Haynes, J.R., 1981. Foraminifera. MacMillan, London, pp 433.