Foraminifera is an order of animals of low type belonging to the class Rhizopoda, of the Phylum Protozoa, furnished with a shell or test, simple or complex, usually perforated by pores called foramina from which the animals get their name.
The shell may be composed of horny matter, or of carbonate of lime, secreted from the water in which they live. Owing to the resemblance of their convoluted chambered shells to those of the nautilus, they were at first reckoned among the most highly organized molluscs. In reality they are among the simplest of the protozoa. The body of the animal is composed of granular, gelatinous, highly elastic sarcode, which not only fills the shell, but passes through the perforations to the exterior, there giving off long thread - like processes called pseudopodia interlacing each other so as to form a net like a spider's web. Internally the sarcode-body exhibits no structure or definite organs of any kind.
Foraminifera appear very early in the geological formations. The great formation known as white chalk is largely composed of foraminiferous shells, while another remarkable formation known as Nummulitic Limestone receives its name from the presence of coin-shaped foraminifera, generally about 25 mm diameter. Research Foraminifera
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Nature
Research Foraminifera
