Scientists solve a 14,000-year-old ocean mystery

At the end of the last Ice Age, as the world began to warm, a swath of the North Pacific Ocean came to life. During a brief pulse of biological productivity 14,000 years ago, this stretch of the sea teemed with phytoplankton, ...

How nutrients are removed in oxygen-depleted regions of the ocean

In the course of global climate change, scientists are observing the increase of low-oxygen areas in the ocean, also termed oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). Large-scale OMZs exist, for example, in the Pacific off the coast of ...

Tiny foraminifera in oceans can save islands, study finds

The climate is getting warmer, and sea levels are rising – a threat to island nations. As a group of researchers lead by colleagues from the University of Bonn found out, at the same time, tiny single-cell organisms are ...

Clues to paleoclimate from tiny fossils

New insights into the growth dynamics of minuscule marine organisms could help put the study of Earth's climate, both present and prehistoric, on a more solid footing.

Atom-by-atom growth chart for shells helps decode past climate

For the first time scientists can see how the shells of tiny marine organisms grow atom-by-atom, a new study reports. The advance provides new insights into the mechanisms of biomineralization and will improve our understanding ...

The oceans were once colder than previously believed

A team of EPFL and European researchers has discovered a flaw in the way past ocean temperatures have been estimated up to now. Their findings could mean that the current period of climate change is unparalleled over the ...

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Foraminifera

Allogromiida Carterinida Fusulinida- extinct Globigerinida Involutinida - extinct Lagenida Miliolida Robertinida Rotaliida Silicoloculinida Spirillinida Textulariida incertae sedis    Xenophyophorea    Reticulomyxa

The Foraminifera ("hole bearers"), or forams for short, are a large group of amoeboid protists which are among the commonest plankton species. They have reticulating pseudopods, fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net. They typically produce a test, or shell, which can have either one or multiple chambers, some becoming quite elaborate in structure. These shells are made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) or agglutinated sediment particles. About 275,000 species are recognized, both living and fossil. They are usually less than 1 mm in size, but some are much larger, and the largest species reaching up to 20 cm.

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