Atlas of Benthic Foraminifera

Abstract

Deep-sea benthic foraminifera have played a central role in biostratigraphic, paleoecological, and paleoceanographical research for over a century. These single-celled marine protists are important because of their geographic ubiquity, distinction morphologies and rapid evolutionary rates, their abundance and diversity deep-sea sediments, and because of their utility as indicators of environmental conditions both at and below the sediment-water interface. In addition, stable isotopic data obtained from deep-sea benthic foraminiferal tests provide paleoceanographers with environmental information that is proving to be of major significance in studies of global climatic change. This work collects together, for the first time, new morphological descriptions, taxonomic placements, stratigraphic occurrence data, geographical distribution summaries, and palaeoecological information, along with state-of-the-art colour photomicrographs (most taken in reflected light, just as you would see them using light microscopy), of 300 common deep-sea benthic foraminifera species spanning the interval from Jurassic - Recent. This volume is intended as a reference and research resource for post-graduate students in micropalaeontology, geological professionals (stratigraphers, paleontologists, paleoecologists, palaeoceanographers), taxonomists, and evolutionary (paleo)biologists.