A guide to 1000 foraminifera from southwestern pacific New Calrdonia / Руководство по 1000 фораминиферам из юго-западной Пацифики Новой Каледонии

Foraminifera have an evolutionary history that extends back to the Cambrian, more than 525 million years ago. Since then, they have radiated and evolved. To date, approximately 60,000 fossil and modern species have been validly recognized (LANGER, 2011), and an estimated 10,000 species (including only 40-50 planktonic species) are still living (VICKERMAN, 1992), constituting the most diverse group of shelled microorganisms in modern oceans (SEN GUPTA, 1999). These small-sized organisms, usually 0.1 to 1 mm, may be very abundant, and tens of thousands living specimens per square meter may be found in some environments (WETMORE, 1995). Their mineralized tests (shells) usually get preserved in the sediment after the death of the organism and may constitute a major, sometimes the dominant, part of many modern or fossil sediments (fig. 1). They are easy to collect, and their high-density populations provide an adequate statistical base, even in small volume samples, to perform environmental analyses, making them a powerful tool for environmental assessment. <...>