NEWS
October 2020: Reykjanes Ridge, North Atlantic
The work on foraminifera from the Reykjanes Ridge south of Iceland has been enlarged. Dieter Ketelsen and Cai-Uso Wohler - both from the Foraminifera.eu team - picked forams and made about 450 images of 169 specimens. The raw material is provided by Senckenberg am Meer and was sampled during cruise 75 of RV Maria S. Merian.
... see more
September 2020: Eocene Foraminifera from Alabama, USA.
A set of 87 images of Eocene foraminifera from Choctaw County, Alabama, USA are provided by our new team member Dr. Cesare Brizio. Mainly based on Microtax and publications by Cushman and Bandy on the Eocene of the Southeastern USA we have discussed the identifications via Zoom. A free A3 poster is available.
... here
September 2020: Publication in Micropaleontology
In the reknown journal Micropaleontology Volume 66, No. 5 my paper on foraminifera in the Eocene glacial erratic Heiligenhafener Kieselgestein is published. It is part of the efforts to describe occurences of foraminifera in glacial erratics and discuss their usage to find the source of marine sedimentary glacial erratics.
... see more at Research Gate
July 2020: Campanian Foraminifera from Lägerdorf, Germany
A new effort is undertaken to photograph and identify benthic specimens from the chalk-quarry at Lägerdorf. The material is of Upper Campanian age. Team Member Dieter Ketelsen made images and step by step we are discussing the identification. It is planned to sample in the quarry again as Lower Campanian to Santonian layers are possibly mined.
... see more
Newsletter 2020
The Foraminifera.eu Newsletter 2020 is out. Learn about our activities, new features and contributions of the past and plans for the future. It is meant as a "Thank You" to our contributors. We want to inform about status, progress, problems and perspectives of The Foraminifera.eu Project. It is a 2MB sized PDF and sent via email. Click on the button to the right to subscribe.
... more on newsletters
FORAMINIFERA - explained
What are Foraminifera
Foraminifera, or forams for short, are single-celled organisms that live in the open ocean, along the coasts and in estuaries. 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 80.000 species, which went extinct.
The word Foraminifera
The word is derived from the Latin words for opening "foramen" and to bear "ferre". So literaly foraminifera means opening bearing. Usually they have one major opening called aperture and miniature smaller ones. Some have secondary apertures. While openings are a mutual feature of all foraminifera, they play in taxonomy only 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 they live in. Major factors of such seafloor habitats are food supply, light, predators, water-depth, salinity, temperature and the given substrate. In the fossil record an assemblage of benthic foraminifera may lead to an understanding of the ancient habitat they lived in. 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. Only about 50 species live in todays oceans, but the number of individuals is enormous. Wide areas of the ocean floors are covered by their remains, the so called test. These tests are a most common source of paleoceanographic and stratigraphical studies. Read more in this PDF written by Prof. Dr. M. Kucera, Bremen.... to the images 
Taxonomy
As single celled organisms with a nucleus, foraminifera belong to the kingdom of protists. They build an own phylum with 80.000 described species. Though they digest organic matter they are no animals. 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 in this PDF by Dr. B.Granier, Brest.
Fossil Record of Foraminifera
The chronostratigraphic range of foraminifera extends from the Early Cambrian till today.
The first forms to appear had organic tests or were simple agglutinated tubes. In the Paleozoic Fusulinida played an important role with a rich variety of forms. In the Mesozoic an enormeous radiation of species took place of which many went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. The Cenozoic saw again a huge radiation. In total 80.000 species are described and used in the biostratigraphic correlation of strata. ...explore the fossil record of foraminifera
Links
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.
THE FORAMINIFERA.EU PROJECT
A Citizen Science Project
The Foraminifera.eu Project (FEUPRO) 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. 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 15.000+ datasets each with an image and 30+ attached data. The data allow to build interfaces for users to search for foraminifera on a wide range of criteria. Besides of taxonomy criteria on morphology, geography, geological time, collection, type pf image, fauna, realibility of the identification are offered to choose from. The result is presented as a plate with up to 500 images. FEUDAT is freely accessible. Contributors may find their collection of foraminifera better accessible than ever. ... to the database
PROJECTS AND CATALOGUES
Projects
Whenever contributors and we decide to work on a specific topic for a year or more a project is established. Our first project in 2009 was the building of our database. It is now part of our daily work. Then in 2010 we established the project '"Sternberger Gestein", a Oligocene glacial erratic. The Working group of Upper Cretaceous foraminifera is continuosly enlarging the according catalogue. Further projects are built on Portuguese Foraminifera, those from the Mauritanian Shelf and on forams in the Eocene Heiligenhafener Kieselgestein.
Catalogues
A major outcome of the Foraminifera.eu Project is a catalogue with to date 15.000+ forams. It is mainly achieved by projects and focussed work on specific foraminifera. One of the goals of these specific studies is to build catalogues of the according foraminifera. Whenever a representative amount of species are documented a catalogue is established. The catalogues are described below.
Catalogue of Upper Cretaceous Foraminifera
The Working group of Upper Cretaceous foraminifera has created over time a catalogue of 2500+ Upper Cretaceous Foraminifera. It started with own finds from Upper Campanian quarries near Hamburg and was soon substantially enlarged by contributions of images by professionals. The enlargement is ongoing and your contribution is welcome to enlarge the coverage. ... to the catalogue
Catalogue of Portuguese Foraminifera
The Working group of Portuguese Foraminifera has created a catalogue of 800+ foraminifera from Portugal. The basis was 8 years of field work in the Algarve by Brian and Michael. Portuguese professionals contributed many SEM images. The catalogue comprises specimens from recent waters and fossil foraminifera from the Miocene, Cretaceous and Jurassic. ... to the catalogue
CONTRIBUTION AND BENEFITS
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. Images with accompanying data are welcome to 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. We are happy to have quite a few professional and avocational contributors. ... to the list of contributors
BEST PRACTICE
Microslides
Foraminifera should be properly stored in microslides. There are different types and manufacturers, the ones we use are described here
NEWS 2020
June 2020: Miocene Foraminifera from Unterrudling, Austria
In 2019 Dr. Björn Berning took Michael Hesemann on a fieldtrip to the Oligocene/Miocene pit of Unterrudling in Upper Austria near Linz. Some of the samples were processed by team member Dieter Ketelsen. He photogrpahed 46 specimens.
... see more
May 2020: Foraminifera from off Aqaba, Jordan.
A set of sixty two images of recent foraminifera from the Gulf of Aqaba, Northern Red Sea are provided by Andrea Perl. She made the images with a scanning electron microscope for her diploma thesis at the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel.
... see more
June 2020: "FORAMINIFERA a catalogue of typical forms"
by Wilfried Rönnfeld
is now available from Micropress Europe. It contains excellent illustrations of the morphological features of foraminifera accompanied by explanations of the specific terms. Furthermore it gives an overview on the most important genera and their stratigraphy. It is the 4th edition.
... see more
by Wilfried Rönnfeld
May 2020: Miocene Foraminifera from Gram, Denmark
Dieter Ketelsen and Cai-Uso Wohler extracted specimens from the Gram clay matrix and shot fifty four images. On a fieldtrip in 2019 we visited the Gram Lergrav in Southern Denmark and took samples.
... see more
April 2020: Jurassic Foraminifera from Glacial Erratics.
A set of specimens from Callovian glacial erratics found in gravel pits north of Berlin are provided by Steffen Schneider. We photographed and identified 34 specimens so far.
... see more
March 2020: Our microfossil club in Hamburg meets virtually
The AG Mikropaläontologie im Naturwissenschaftlichen Verein Hamburg continues their meetings now via videoconferencing. The sessions are in German only.
... contact us in German if you want to participate
March 2020: Sandcollector Loes Modderman
from the Netherlands contributes a set of 34 images. It is common, that sandcollectors find forams in their beach sands. Waves role the shells over and over until they are gone. Beach sands may contain a mix of well preserved shells to heavily corroded pebble like objects. Loes has nicely illustrated this specific mix of forams, which sandcollectors frequently see and enjoy. If you haven't noticed the foraminifera yet, take a closer look into your beach sands.
... see more
March 2020: Michael Dietrich contributes images
of foraminifera from sand of the creek Szejdlik near Stare, district Trebivlice in the Czech Republic. The sand is found by sandcollector P. Vodila. We think that the foraminifera indicate an Upper Cretaceous age. Amongst the genera are Neoflabellina, Ammobaculites, Lenticulina and Frondicularia... see more
February 2020: 15.000 Entries
The milestone of 15.000 entries in our database has been passed. Each entry consists of 1-3 images and 24 accessible data. It means that 15.000 x 24 = 360.000 data are accessible in our database. It allows us to offer you a wide range of searchable data through our interfaces. You find them on the top row: Genus, Locality, Fossil and the main Query
February 2020: Brandenburg - Cretaceous
Prof. Dr. Olaf Elicki, TU Freiberg contributes 239 SEM images of foraminifera from his publication on Cretaceous foraminifera from Brandenburg, Germany. The images nicely enlarge our Catalogue of Upper Cretaceous Foraminifera. The forams were found in material from three drills and range from Albian to Coniacian age.
... to the images
NEWSLETTER
The Foraminifera.eu Newsletter is sent once a year in January to its 700+ subscribers. It tells about activities, new features and contributions of the past and plans for the future. It is meant as a "Thank You" to our contributors. It is a 2MB sized PDF and sent via email. Click on the button to the right to subsribe and to get the newest version. Older versions are available thru Research Gate
Janurary 2020: Stade - Miocene
A set of 70 images of Miocene foraminifera from a drill near Stade (Hamburg-area) are added. Stefan Raveling - Foraminifera.eu team - got the drill-core, processed it and picked hundreds of specimens. Cai-Uso Wohler - Foraminifera.eu team - shot about optical 200 images. The specimens are shown with different views.
... see more
