Foraminifer — Free Oceanography Illustration

Oceanography

Foraminifer

Enlarged view of a microscopic foraminifer: a tiny single-celled protozoan enclosed in a hard calcium carbonate test made of multiple rounded chambers joined in sequence. The shell may be coiled in a spiral, arranged in a clustered or globular bubble-like form, or appear serially chambered; in some variants it can look coin-like or bead-chambered. The test is off-white, cream, pale beige, tan, or translucent white, with a chalky to smooth calcareous surface, fine perforations or tiny pores, subtle ridges or delicate geometric texture, small apertures between chambers, and a distinct opening at one end.

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