Foraminifera - Science topic

If foraminifera were found to be useful for applied ecological forensics, it would open up a range of potential applications and research avenues. Foraminifera are microscopic marine organisms that leave behind distinct shells or tests in sediment layers, and they can provide valuable information about past environmental conditions. Here's how their use in applied ecological forensics might unfold:

It's important to note that while the potential applications of foraminifera in ecological forensics are promising, their effectiveness would depend on extensive research, validation, and refinement of methodologies. Collaborations between marine biologists, ecologists, environmental scientists, and experts in related fields would be crucial to ensure accurate and meaningful results.

I would try with bryozoans...no foraminifera!

Dear Dr Shcukla

This speciemen might be Cristellaria sp. if so, it belongs to the family Lagenidae. Both Lagenids and Rotaliids have hyaline wall, however the microstructure is different which is only observable in SEM photos. It definitely not belongs to miliolids since their wall is in most species imperpeforate and do not let light to pass through, therefore in thin-sections the wall is seen dark.

Thank you very much for your help!

It seems more and more likely, that the structures acutally might be eggs.

Reverse image search did not produce any helpful output unfortunatley.

It´s indeed a beautiful area, yes! - I will keep you updated in case I find out more!

In the photos you attach, I can see three specimens of planktic forams but you need to provide us with more clear and close photos to allow us to identify it. by the way i think the forams in the last photo is belong to Brizalina not Bolivina?? and you have to give him a double check.

Due to certain technical problems on previous occasion I could see only partial views of figs B and C, and on which I made my initial opinion. By now I find complete outlines of all the four figures (A-D) displaying ventral views. In my opinion, Figs B and C represent mature individuals and D representing gerontic individual of Abathomphalus mayaroensis while Fig. A with sub square peripheral outline, apparent lack of double peripheral keels in the ultimate chamber and absence of a peripheral notch between ultimate and penultimate chambers tends to differ from A. mayaroensis. Nevertheless, the occurrence of 'species D' in the assemblage suggests the possibility of other contemporaneous index forms with wider environmental tolerance (like Racemiguembelina fructicosa and Pseudotextularia deformis).

Dear Ilya

I think it's a Protelphidium, possibly P. hofkeri Haynes 1956 from the Thanetian of England.

Check these:

TYPE REFERENCE: Haynes, J ., Cer/ain smaller Sri/ish fo raminife ra: Pari I - Nonionidae, ChiloslOmellidae, EpislOminidae, Discorbidae, Amp hisleginidae. Globigerinidae, GloboroJaliidae. and Gurmbelinidae. Cushman Found. Foram. Res. , Contr. , Ithaca, New York, 1956, vol. 7, pI. 3, p. 86.

TYPE REFERENCE: Banner, F. T., and Culver, S. J ., Quaternary Haynesina 11. gel1. and Paleogene Protelphidium Haynes: their morphologl', aflinities and distribution. Jour. Fora m. Res., Was hi ngton, D. C , 1978. vo l. 8, no. 3, pp. 178, 180, 183, 184.

Note that the above typos result from OCR-ing Ellis & Messina pdfs

Technically, Morphometry is the best tool for micropaleontology. It very difficult to differentiate under a polarizing microscope.

@Biraj Kanti Mondal thanks for your answer. Actually i want to paleo-temperature based on foraminifera not current time.

Looks like a Foraminifera for sure

In want of three clear views (dorsal, ventral and apertural-peripheral) of any of the specimens the identification remains tentative. Assuming the attached scale 50µm, and considering microperforate pustulose pore-mound wall texture, and shallow to indistinct umbilicus the form seemingly belongs to parvularugoglobigerinid; and the aperture is distinctive of Parvularugoglobigerina extensa (Blow 1979).

Sanjay K. Mukhopadhyay

Hello Sanjit KUMAR Jena

I suggest you interpolate the data from your preferred ice volume curve (e.g., Waelbroeck et al., 2002; although there are more recent publications) according to your sample ages, extracted from your own age model. After that you can use the ice volume values you got to do the ice volume correction.

A very well explained and detailed article for paleoSSS reconstruction is . For SST values you can either use the Modern Analogue Technique or other proxies like Mg/Ca.

Since these reconstructions imply considerable errors, some papers tend not to convert the oxygen residual values to salinity. But it is up to you and your data.

I hope it helps,

Thanks Olga!!

Dear Mrs. Azmi,

it is hard to judge which mineral(s) these are. I agree with previous answers, these are not of biological origin. I agree that the right arrow might point to something like a quartz clast, but the fracturing (almost parallel fractures) doesn't resemble the fracture patterns you would usually find in quartz clasts as quartz doesn't have any cleveages.

I would try posting a picture of normal polarized and one with crossed nichols. This would give others a better chance to give the right answer.

Other features that might be helpful: Does the mineral show pleochroism? How axial image (uniaxial, biaxial)? Is the mineral anisotrope or isotrope?

Best,

Eric

Hi Ahmed Samir and Ashraf M. T. Elewa - the work is done and published - you can download an open access copy for free at the link above.

Dear Šoster,

If the limestone is not hard and compacted (later case need thin sectioning), you can try to use boiling water and adding hydrogen pyroxide with a continuous stirrer for at least 72 hours (best for chalky and marly limestone). This method leads to getting better and clean tests usually. If they still coagulate, you can add, but be careful, very very little amount (one drop or two) of diluted sodium hydroxide (the later dissolved calcareous tests and etching siliceous tests).

Dear Toyin, use boiling water and hydrogen pyroxide for at least 72 hours with stirring give much better, clean residue chalky limestone, marly limestone, and shale.

Good Luck

A possibilidade é possível.

The possibility exists in this matter.

Dear Victoria

It would also be helpful to know where the forams come from and the (assumed) age of the sediment containing them. With this information you may be able to find useful literature for both their identification and their likely environment.

Based on this view only, I would consider the two on the left as belonging to Anomalinoides or possibly Hanzawaia and the two on the right to Nonionella. But this indeed depends on the characteristics of the other side too.

Dear Elena

Remin et al. (2011) described a method of rock disintegration and foraminiferal extraction with the use of LN2. Hope you find it useful.

Best regards

Maryam

Sorry for my late response. Part of photos which I took with another microscope (40 and 60 objects) seems were saved with wrong settings, can not open them, unfortunately. Only file with name Image_7577 contains specimens from different areas in Antarctica, the rest are from Amundsen Sea collected by Dr. Eun Jin Yang (KOPRI).

Most of them are the sp. of Globigerinoides and/or globojerinita which are the planktonic foraminifers of deeper marine setting and spheroidal fossils do resemble calcisphere but it's not a thumb rule always, calcisphere can be easily confused with a planktonic foram, e.g Orbulina universa but the morhpmetric analysis is taken into account.

Sincerely, I am beholden to you and wordless to extend my thanks for such an effort and I appreciate your keenness. Well, the reservation, I posses include the name of Mizzia that seems like the poorly preserved Bryozoan to me, though not confirmed. The bottom right resembles Nodosinelloid as you have pointed out correctly. And the biota i.e Macroporella and Briozaories still unknown to me as I haven't read or seen in the literature of Permian strata of the Upper Indus basin of the studied area.

Thanking you again for making out your precious time dear @José Francisco Carrasco

using F/2 culture for solid culture.

Dear Majed,

This paper may be of interest to you:

Vavrek MJ. 2016. A comparison of clustering methods for biogeography with fossil datasets. PeerJ 4:e1720 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1720

It concerns biogeographic data but its conclusions are interesting for fossil datasets.

All the best.

Majed:

Yes Gavelinella species do cross K/Pg boundary. Fairly common in Late Cretaceous but also occur in Palaeocene. Kindly see this link.

I tried Dino-lite microscope once, but it was not successful. One reason is its low magnification, two is difficulty in focusing (it is too light and unstable to control). I recommend to find cheap but robust microscope (used, second hand one should be enough), attach ccd digital camera on it, and take pictures as Dr. Artüz did.

Hi Marina,

It is obviously that the diagnosis of your thin section are away from that of the genus Globorotalia, specially Globorotalia menardii , no coarse spine ornamentation is present, number of chambers is high, thickness of wall is vary and porcelain in addition to high helicospiral whorl architecture. Therefore, I think, as Hatem said, if you submit us with the appropriate age the matter can be elucidate. A black and white image will be more useful.

Sincere

Using EDX analysis with the SEM the black material corresponds to carbon-enriched areas, relative to the surrounding calcitic tests, which coat the insides of chamber walls. An image of a broken Ammonia is attached and shows the coating on the inner regions of the tests and pores.

A mixture of hydrogen peroxide and ammonia will do good for soaking and boiling marly and less jndurated limestone. For very hard compact limestone, I think several things sections will be better.

Dear Ted,

I am not a paleontlogist, but I think that what you suggest cas be true. I would suggest that you put your question in English and see what experts in this issue think about you questions.

Kind regards.

Um abraço,

Orlando

Dear Sudhir

There is no straightforward answer to your question. It may depend on the time interval under study, but more importantly the best stratigraphic resolution and identification of hiati can be achieved by combining various stratigraphic approaches. If only biostratigraphic tools are available you may be able to detect hiati within a planktic foram biozone through the absence of a (shorter) nannofossil zone. Of course, you will have the same benefit the other way round. In case you use would use 'standard' biozones and you would a have seemingly continuous sequence of biozones for both groups in a certain stratigraphic interval, an unexpected coincidence of biozonal boundaries between the two groups may point to a hiatus that cannot be discerned in either group.

So, in your case, you should try to integrate planktic foram and nannofossil data. In general, stratigraphy is the art of data integration. The modern geological time scale is the pinnacle of that approach!

Please see the following link

Best Regards Kasia K Śliwińska

Try Globorotalia.

Tyanks. Just noticed a typo (I hate touch pads). Of course I meant sulfuric acid (H2SO4).

thank you for your response. My understanding is that magnesium enters the calcite of all foraminifera, driven by temperature, but the relationship differs in species-specific ways (the "vital effects"). While the association between Mg incorporation and temperature is widely studied in several species, I can't seem to find any literature specifically on T. quinqueloba. However, I was not aware that non-magnesian species exist, so this might be the explanation after all. Would you mind elaborating on this concept, or pointing me in the direction of some literature on foraminifera excluding Mg from their tests?

Thanks again,

John

Alan:

Kindly have a look at this link for insights (p.261):

Best

Syed

To my knowledge I think it depends on species as Alessio pointed out. Though I am no authority in the field because am still in training as a PhD student. Some can live for days, others can reproduce in months or years.

Thanks very much Ferdinand Oberle for this paper and link.

I am aware of one species, Miliammellus legis, which has a test of opaline silica. This species occurs at depths of approximately 4km (below the Carbonate Compensation Depth) in high latitude areas. It is similar in appearance to some miliolids, specifically species of Quinqueloculina, consequently the family to which it belongs is termed the Silicoloculinidae.

Ghulam:

Kindly see this link for useful insights.

Best

Syed

Thank you very much

Depending on the size of the forams you can sieve the sediments using various sieve sizes. Standards are 240, 120, 64 microns. They will separate the coarse fraction containing most of the microorganisms from silt and clay size. After that you can handpick them with the help of paint brushes under microscope for further studies.

Kezhakielie:

Could you please provide different views of this specimen including the lithology of the stratigraphic level which yielded this.

Best

Syed

Hello simona, I have always determined this as rosalina globularis. Best wishes, frans JorissenR

Thank you very much for these answers!

For the larger foraminifera, a binocular microscope with up to 50 times magnification will be suitable. There are several makes that can be used, but you may want to make sure that you have one eyepiece with a graticule to make quantitative measurements of the dimensions of the objects.

Stuart.

Thanks David 

Got valuable inputs from you. Thanks

With Regards

Abhay

You should consult this article: The FOBIMO (FOraminiferal BIo-MOnitoring) initiative—Towards a standardised protocol for soft-bottom benthic foraminiferal monitoring studies, 2012. MArine Micropaleontology, Vol. 94-95. pages 1-13.

By Scönfeld et al. 2012.

The protocols is described including the various splitters.

Abstract The European Community Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) was established to provide guidelines for monitoring the quality of marine ecosystems. Monitoring the status of marine environments is traditionally based on macrofauna surveys, for which standardised methods have been established. Benthic foraminifera are also good indicators of environmental status because of their fast turnover rates, high degree of specialisation, and the preservation of dead assemblages in the fossil record. In spite of the growing interest in foraminiferal bio-monitoring during the last decades, no standardised methodology has been proposed until today. The aim of the FOraminiferal BIo-MOnitoring (FOBIMO) expert workshop, held in June 2011 at Fribourg, Switzerland, which assembled 37 scientists from 24 research groups and 13 countries, was to develop a suite of standard methods. This paper presents the main outcome of the workshop, a list of motivated recommendations with respect to sampling devices, sample storage, treatment, faunal analysis and documentation. Our recommendations fulfil the criteria imposed both by scientific rigour and by the practical limitations of routine studies. Hence, our aim is to standardise methodologies used in bio-monitoring only and not to limit the use of different methods in pure scientific studies. Unless otherwise stated, all recommendations concern living (stained) benthic foraminiferal assemblages. We have chosen to propose two types of recommendations. Mandatory recommendations have to be followed if a study wants to qualify as sound and compatible to the norms. The most important of these recommendations are the interval from 0 to 1 cm below the sediment surface has to be sampled, and an interface corer or box corer that keeps the sediment surface intact is to be used for offshore surveys. A grab sampler must not be deployed in soft sediments. Three replicate samples are to be taken and analysed separately. Samples are to be washed on a 63-μm screen, and the living benthic foraminiferal fauna of the > 125 μm fraction is to be analysed. Splits are to be picked and counted entirely, and all counted foraminifera from at least one replicate per station have to be stored in micropalaeontological slides. Census data, supplementary laboratory data and microslides have to be archived. Advisory recommendations are to sample in autumn, to have a sample size of 50 cm2 or a tube of 8 cm inner diameter, to use > 70% ethanol as a preservative, rose Bengal at a concentration of 2 grams per litre for staining, and a staining time of at least 14 days. The split size should be defined by a target value of 300 specimens, heavy liquid separation should be avoided, and the 63–125 μm fraction or deeper sediment levels may be considered in some environments. We are convinced that the application of this protocol by a large number of scientists is a necessary first step to a general acceptance of benthic foraminifera as a reliable tool in bio-monitoring studies.

.

Lithium tungstate is also frequently used in mineral separation and might also be an alternative.

You can try using tracing function in CorelDraw software.

As a rule, such pictures are hand-drawing.

It indeed strongly resembles a biserial benthic foram, possibly an agglutinated  Spiroplectinella. However, it is rather huge (almost 3 mm in length) and the color is unusual. Can you liberate the specimen form the tube, so that the symmetry can be better assessed?

Fragments of coal may be datable using palynology. Although they are unlikely to be coeval, they could establish a maximum age.

First way 1-To differentiates  betwen two different ages formaninfera is the systematic clasifications of hem using the scientfic classifications  .

SECOND WAY 2USING MORPHOLGICAL SHSPES RATIO , BASED ON TE NUMBER OF BROKEN , damaged  foramniniferal form to non broken ( or damaged} ratio 

ACORDONGY THE MORE BROKEN ONE WILL B CONSIDERD AS OUT FLUX

GOOD LUCK

Cameron:

Your guess seems right, as the forms may belong to Hedbergellidae. Kindly see this link for insights:

Best

Syed

I fully support the opinion of Miroslav Bubik: 4 gavelinellids (or perhaps Anomalinoides) and 2 buliminids (perhaps Siphogenerinoides or alike). These are not agglutintated, just very poorly preserved from recrystallisation and/or corrosion.

Contrary to what I read in some of the reactions, this does not point to reworking (only if you would find this quality in modern deposits). The forams are just very old.  The older the rocks, the more likely the forams become poorly preserved at some point  through deep burial, orogenesis, groundwater flow, outcrop weathering, etc.

Obviously poor preservation is not a necessity: forams can be excellently preserved, particularly  in old shales (little groundwater flow)  that have hardly been buried. Clearly that is not the case here. Note that open/deep marine shales may contain abundant in situ agglutinated taxa, either calcareous or non-calcareous ones. Few of these consist of terrigeneous sand or coarse silt grains though. 

Dear Amr Zaky.

In spite of low resolution, but the image is clear where the last chamber is inflated. It may be hypotype of Gaudryina laevigata. Be sure it is distributed in many samples and in notable number, to be defined as new var. of Gaudryina laevigata.  best regard

Dear Prof. Cesare Andrea Papazzoni,

Thank you for your interest. Now, I am preparing axial and equatorial sections of the specified species. After getting more detailed photos of it, i will contact with you for more cooperation.

Amr 

The general model to link pore water d13C-DIC to oxygen concentration is described here: McCorkle, D. C. & Emerson, S. R. The relationship between pore water carbon isotopic composition and bottom water oxygen concentration. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 52, 1169–1176 (1988). The method for benthic foraminifera d13C is detailed in Hoogakker, B. A. A., Elderfield, H., Schmiedl, G., McCave, I. N., and Rickaby, R. E. M.: Glacial-interglacial changes in bottom-water oxygen content on the Portuguese margin, Nature Geosci, 8, 40-43, 10.1038/ngeo2317. Figure 1 gives you the equation you're looking for.

Due to number 3 & 4 

Family: Spondylidae Gray, 1826,Genus: Spondylus Linnaeus, 1758, most of can be Clypeaster intermedius

Taghi:

Strong affinity is suggested with Globotruncana arca (Cushman) of Late Campanian age. 

Best

Syed

Majed: