A global review of tiny sea animals called foraminifera has identified 57 new living species.
About Foraminifera:
Foraminifera, or forams for short, are single-celled organisms that live in the open ocean, along the coasts, and in estuaries.
Most have shells for protection and either float in the water column (planktonic) or live on the sea floor (benthic).
Of the approximately 8,000 species living today, only about 40 species are planktonic, thus the vast majority of foraminifera live on the sea floor.
They live in a number of different habitats at the sea bottom and most ‘crawl around’ using their pseudopodia.
They are generally less than 500 microns (½ mm) in size, though some tropical species can grow to 20 cm.
Because they don’t have a wall around their cell membranes, they are extremely flexible and can change shape.
What does “foraminifera” mean?
The shells have hundreds of tiny holes called foramen, the Latin word for window.
The organism pushes extensions of its cytoplasm called pseudopodia (or false feet) through these holes to gather food.
What Do They Eat?
Foraminifera eat detritus on the sea floor and anything smaller than them: diatoms, bacteria, algae, and even small animals such as tiny copepods.
How Do They Build Their Shells?
Forams are unusual among single-celled organisms because they build shells made of calcium carbonate (calcareous) or from tiny grains of sand stuck together (agglutinate).
Despite their small size and relatively simple biology, forams build complex shells, consisting at their simplest of one chamber (like a vase or tube) to many chambers that coil in elaborate ways.
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