Foraminifera

Searched as Foraminifera indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Foraminifera as the accepted name.

Foraminifera are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly an external shell called a test of diverse forms and materials. Tests of chitin are believed to be the most primitive type. Most foraminifera are marine, the majority of which live on or within the seafloor sediment, while a smaller number float in the water column at various depths, which belong to the suborder Globigerinina. Fewer are known from freshwater or brackish conditions, and some very few (nonaquatic) soil species have been identified through molecular analysis of small subunit ribosomal DNA.

Foraminifera

Scott Fay · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
foramPBDB
Sits inside
RhizariaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB
Motility
stationaryPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 509 million years on record.

The record covers at least 509.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 516 Mya to 0 Mya.

Cambrian — about 2 of 2852 occurrencesOrdovician — about 0 of 2852 occurrencesSilurian — about 0 of 2852 occurrencesDevonian — about 23 of 2852 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 88 of 2852 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 30 of 2852 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 8 of 2852 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 14 of 2852 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 18 of 2852 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 9 of 2852 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 2852 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 16 of 2852 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 57 of 2852 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 155 of 2852 occurrencesPaleocene — about 123 of 2852 occurrencesEocene — about 335 of 2852 occurrencesOligocene — about 464 of 2852 occurrencesMiocene — about 638 of 2852 occurrencesPliocene — about 268 of 2852 occurrencesPleistocene — about 599 of 2852 occurrences526–509 Mya — about 2 occurrences509–491 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences421–404 Mya — about 4 occurrences404–386 Mya — about 4 occurrences386–368 Mya — about 12 occurrences368–351 Mya — about 3 occurrences351–333 Mya — about 17 occurrences333–316 Mya — about 12 occurrences316–298 Mya — about 59 occurrences298–281 Mya — about 9 occurrences281–263 Mya — about 5 occurrences263–246 Mya — about 25 occurrences246–228 Mya — about 18 occurrences228–211 Mya — about 9 occurrences211–193 Mya — about 6 occurrences193–175 Mya — about 6 occurrences175–158 Mya — about 2 occurrences158–140 Mya — about 14 occurrences140–123 Mya — about 4 occurrences123–105 Mya — about 38 occurrences105–88 Mya — about 32 occurrences88–70 Mya — about 86 occurrences70–53 Mya — about 208 occurrences53–35 Mya — about 265 occurrences35–18 Mya — about 747 occurrences18–0 Mya — about 1264 occurrences509.7 Mya11.7 ka526 Mya0 Mya

2,852 occurrences of Foraminifera on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2,852 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

131 formations

Graham — 33.17°N, 98.16°WGraham — 33.20°N, 98.14°WGraham — 32.54°N, 98.87°WGraham — 32.89°N, 98.76°WGraham — 32.01°N, 99.10°WGraham — 31.70°N, 99.22°WGraham — 33.00°N, 98.54°WByram — 32.41°N, 90.84°WDakhla — 26.35°N, 33.02°EAgua Doce — 3.69°S, 44.56°WKlasaman — 0.88°S, 131.25°EChangxing — 31.76°N, 108.46°EChangxing — 30.43°N, 108.53°EChangxing — 30.48°N, 109.05°EChangxing — 29.98°N, 109.08°EChangxing — 30.22°N, 109.05°EChangxing — 32.38°N, 107.11°EChangxing — 25.75°N, 112.82°EChangxing — 29.42°N, 110.92°EBeul — 51.39°N, 7.87°ESubathu — 33.79°N, 74.26°ESubathu — 33.23°N, 74.42°ESubathu — 30.97°N, 77.02°EBaird — 40.90°N, 122.27°WQueimadas — 3.69°S, 44.56°WPreguicas — 3.69°S, 44.56°WEdwardsville — 39.00°N, 86.33°WEdwardsville — 39.04°N, 86.50°WCephalopod Limestone — 10.30°S, 123.71°ECephalopod Limestone — 9.83°S, 124.57°ECastro Limestone — 40.04°N, 18.45°EMut — 36.83°N, 33.47°EUpper Tului — 40.10°N, 9.52°EUm Bogma — 29.06°N, 33.24°EUm Bogma — 29.06°N, 33.40°EUm Bogma — 28.94°N, 33.31°EUm Bogma — 29.08°N, 33.25°EChaya — 23.33°N, 71.93°EChaya — 22.42°N, 69.00°ENago Limestone — 46.05°N, 11.12°ENago Limestone — 45.89°N, 10.88°ECalcareniti di Castelgomberto — 45.48°N, 11.58°EArguis — 42.37°N, 0.57°WRiachuelo — 10.81°S, 37.24°WCassian — 46.51°N, 11.95°ECassian — 46.52°N, 11.93°ETejon — 34.92°N, 119.18°WTejon — 34.92°N, 119.30°W

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The named rock units Foraminifera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 107 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 2,520 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Foraminifera and its relatives

Miocene

Where Foraminifera and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,087 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 667 sites for Foraminifera, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

221 references

Each of the 2,852 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 209 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Foraminifera

Credit
Scott Fay
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itRhizaria through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Eichwald 1830)