March 2026, 25.000 entries

These days we have passed the milestone of 25,000 entries. When we started in 2007, we never imagined reaching this scale. It was made possible by the rocks, sediments, core-materials, specimens, images and mental support of you — our contributors and supporters. Thank you all !

February till September 2026, Talks in this year

To date, nine talks are planned throughout the year. Topics range from "Origins and development of the Foraminifera.eu Initiative" to "Fieldwork in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation at the type locality in Dorset" and "Forams in the glacial erratic rock Flensburger Gestein". To the Schedule of Talks.

January 2026: Forams in the Flensburger Gestein

Holger Tüxen collected over many years pieces of the glacial erratic rock "Flensburger Gestein" and extracted its fossils. He gave us his microfossil collection for determination and documentation. We photographed all taxa, which can be seen here ....

December 2025, Kasseler Meeressande:

The last weeks we discussed identifications, worked on material from new outcrops and photographed forams. Now over 250 specimens are online. The Kasseler Meeressande were deposited during the Chattian stage of the Late Oligocene in a marine gulf located in the area where the modern city of Kassel is situated. We have material from four stations. Find more details at the page of the KMS Project.

November 2025, Paper out:

The paper on the physical foraminifera.eu collection is out. It is at: Elsevier
The collection houses 214.000+ picked specimens. 6.500+ are figured, identified and can be found in the query of the foraminifera.eu webpage. Explore the past and future of our collection in this paper.

September 2024: Paper on Oligocene foraminifera published.

Read my open access paper Hesemann, M., Ketelsen D. 2024. Foraminifera in the glacial erratic rock Sternberger Gestein from northern Germany. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 2024, 54 (3): 249–263, 7 plates. .... to the paper.

March 2023: Paper on Mauritanian Foraminifera published.

Read my open access paper Hesemann, M. et al., 2023: Benthic foraminiferal assemblages from the Mauritanian shelf and upper slope and their association with cold-water coral habitats. It contains 31 plates. .... to the paper.

A Citizen Science Project

The Foraminifera.eu Lab (FEULAB) is run by a team of avocational scientists, who gets great support by professionals and amateurs. We want to foster the interest in foraminifera as an important but mainly neglected form of life. By documenting the many species we want to rise the awareness for the biodiversity crisis in general. Our freely accessible database is a major outcome. We work out of natural enthusiasm on a strictly non-commercial basis. ... read more

The Foraminifera.eu Database (FEUDAT)

FEUDAT contains to date 25.000+ datasets each with an image. It is freely searchable on a range of criteria, which are on taxonomy, morphology, geography, geological time, collection, fauna and more. The result is presented as a plate with up to 500 images. Contributors may find their collection of foraminifera better accessible than ever. to the database // It is described in Hesemann, M. 2015: The foraminifera.eu database: concept and status. Palaeontologia Electronica 18.3.48A: 1-14 to the PDF

With you, our contributors we work on projects. We extract, photograph, identify forams and interpret assemblages biologically and/or stratigraphically. We work with amateurs and professionals on simple to high levels. To process a beach sample from a school is easily done (see Greek Schools Project). Working on core or deep-sea material is complex and may result in a peer reviewed paper (Hesemann, M. 2024: Foraminifera in the glacial erratic rock Sternberger Gestein from northern Germany in JFOR 54(3): 249-263 Full text). Please contact us with your proposal.

Modern North Atlantic foraminifera

Based on hundreds of samples ranging from the beach to abyssal plains we are constantly working on foraminifera from the North Atlantic. In 2025 we are finishing our catalog of Modern Greater North Sea foraminifera with 1030+ figured specimens representing 326 species. Papers on benthic forams associated with cold water corals off Mauritania and on deep sea forams south of Greenland were published. A report on Norwegian Trench forams is in the making. Our work on samples from the Reykjanes Ridge resulted in 240+ photographed specimens and that on the Mediterranean Sea in 700+ datasets.

How to contribute

We work strictly non commercial, money can't be contributed. Raw material and picked specimens allow us to work on interesting stuff und explore new topics. With Images we may enlarge the coverage of the database. Comments and proposals often lead to improvements. Invitation to talks, field work and workshops allows us to get in touch with interested people. Provided publications preferably as PDF help us to improve our skills. Contact us

Benefits

As a contributor you will get your own contributors page. It is freely online accessible to you and everyone interested. You will find your collection in our well structured database and thus made accessible over a substantial range of criteria. We add contributed images free of charge and check identifications. To a limited extent and willingness of the team we process raw material, extract forams, shoot optical images and identify specimens. ... to the list of contributors

Microslides

Foraminifera should be properly stored in microslides. There are different types and manufacturers, the ones we use are described here

 

World Foraminifera Database - part of the register of marine species.
Pformas@Microtax - major taxonomic resource for planktonics.
Organisations: Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research - The Micropaleontological Society - Micropress Europe and Grzybowksi Foundation - Microfossil Club Hamburg - just to mention a few.

 

What are Foraminifera

Foraminifera, in short forams, are single-celled organisms which live in the oceans. They consist of cytoplasma, which is stabilized and protected by an inner shell called test. Either they float in the water column (planktonics) or live on the sea floor (benthics). Of the approximately 6,000 species living today, only about 50 species are planktonic. It is estimated that there are about 42.000 species, which went extinct.

The word Foraminifera

is derived from the Latin words "foramen" (=opening) and "ferre" (=to bear). Usually they have one major opening called aperture and miniature smaller ones. Some have secondary apertures. Within the taxonomy of forams the openings only play a minor role. ...      more on apertures

Where do Foraminifera live ?

Foraminifera are abundant all over the oceans. A few species live in freshwater environments. Forams live in the deep sea, open waters, near shore and even in areas only partly covered by sea water. Each niche has a specific mixture of species, called fauna. Explore the foraminifera in todays oceans via the zoomable map of our finds or the database-query choosing an ocean, area and/or locality.

Benthic Foraminifera

They live on the seafloor and adapt to the local habitat. Major factors of such seafloor habitats are food supply, light, predators, water-depth, salinity, temperature and substrate. In the fossil record an assemblage of benthic foraminifera may lead to an understanding of the ancient habitat. Benthic foraminiferal species show a wide range of life styles and forms. ... to the images

Planktonic Foraminifera

They drift in the oceans. Their habitat are open waters from the surface to several hundred meters below. About 50 species live in todays oceans. Wide areas of the ocean floors are covered by their remains, the so called tests. They are used for palaeontological and stratigraphical studies (PDF) by Prof. Kucera.... to the images

Taxonomy of Foraminifera

As single celled organisms with a nucleus, foraminifera belong to the kingdom of protists. They build an own phylum with 80.000 described species. The taxonomy is for more than 99% of the species based on the morphology of the test. The wall material of the test and the chamber arrangement are the most important features to describe benthic species. Consult our key to benthic species. For planktonics the test surface and chamber arrangement are important. Consult our key to planktonic species. Read more.

Fossil Record of Foraminifera

The stratigraphic range of foraminifera extends from before the Cambrian till today. The first species had organic tests or were simple agglutinated tubes. In the Paleozoic Fusulinida dominated. In the Mesozoic an enormeous radiation of species took place till substantial extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous. The Cenozoic had a huge radiation. In total 80.000 species are described and used in the biostratigraphic studies. ...to the fossil record