Fossil Foraminifera appear in the Early Cambrian, at about the same time as the first skeletonized metazoans. However, due to the inadequate preservation of early unilocular (single-chambered) foraminiferal tests and difficulties in their identification, the evolution of early foraminifers is poorly understood. By using molecular data from a wide range of extant naked and testate unilocular spe...

Factors influencing the composition of shallow water benthic foraminifera along the SW coast of South Africa at two locations (Table Bay, TB; St Helena Bay, SHB) ∼200km from each other were examined. Small taxa dominated in both locations; living assemblages from SHB (28 species, Ammonia parkinsoniana dominant) differed from TB (34 species, Elphidium articulatum dominant). Environmental paramet...

Authors are requested to select key words from the following list. You may use plurals and adjectives for combinations like absolute pupillary response, centrifugal optic nerve, inter blobs, etc. If key words are needed which do not appear in this list, please underline them. For animal classification the Latin nomenclature should be used. p-mechanism A-scan a-wave aberration absolute absorptio...

Large benthic foraminifera are unicellular calcifying reef organisms that can form symbiotic relationships with a range of different microalgae. However, the cellular functions, such as symbiosis and calcification, and other aspects of cellular physiology in large benthic foraminifera are not fully understood. Amphisorus kudakajimensis was used as a model to determine the detailed cellular char...

During ROPME Winter Cruise 2006, twenty six surface sediment samples taken from the Northwestern part of the Persian Gulf at depths of 13-77m were analyzed for their foraminifera content. A total of 93 species of benthic foraminifera were found in the study area. The foraminifera assemblages were dominated by Ammonia beccarii, Spiroloculina excavata, S. depressa, Quinqueloculina dimidiata,...

Stable isotopic measurements have been made on both planktonic foraminifera and coccolithic matrix of Middle Cretaceous (Late Albian–Cenomanian) age from two Pacific low latitude sites. The degree of alteration of the foraminifera has been assessed through the application of chemical analyses, cathodoluminescence and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The rotaliporid foraminifera display an in...

Abstract We analyze the spatial distributions of two groups of benthic foraminifera (Adelosina spp. + Quinqueloculina spp. and Elphidium spp.), along Sicilian coast, and their correlation with six different heavy metals, responsible for the pollution. Samples were collected inside the Gulf of Palermo, which has a high level of pollution due to heavy metals, and along the coast of Lampedusa isla...

Ocean acidification causes biodiversity loss, alters ecosystems, and may impact food security, as shells of small organisms dissolve easily in corrosive waters. There is a suggestion that photosynthetic organisms could mitigate ocean acidification on a local scale, through seagrass protection or seaweed cultivation, as net ecosystem organic production raises the saturation state of calcium carb...