Foraminifera

Marcelle BouDagher-Fadel
 HOW TO RECOGNIZE A
PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERA

By its simplicity

Lacks the additional skeletal

No plugs
Structures characteristics of No pillars
No canal Aperture
Benthic foraminifera simple
Although the aperture may be
system modified exteriorly by apertural
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

Hastigerina
Cancellate - spinose

cancellate
Globigernoides

smooth Pulleniatina muricate

Morozovella
 Appearance of first
planktonic foraminifera
 keel elongate chamber
extensions

biserial
wide umbilicus Muricae fusing
Large perforations
keel Umbilical view Dorsal apertures
Dorsal view spines

Globorotalia
Globigerinoides

Peripheral view
Umbilical view
aperture
• 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.