2. HOW TO RECOGNIZE A
PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERA
By its simplicity
Lacks the additional skeletal
Structures characteristics of
Benthic foraminifera
No plugs
No pillars
No canal
system
No internal structure, or tooth-plates in thin
sections or solid, lips sticking out or in
from the simple aperture
Aperturesimple
Although the aperture may be
modified exteriorly by apertural
lips, portici, tegillum….)
3. Planktic (planktonic) foraminifera can
permanently float or drift in the water
column.
They are widespread and have had
rapidly evolving lineages
They are very abundant in inner to
outer neritic sediments
19. • Planktic/Benthic
• Paleodepth: planktic forams not in coastal
zones (neritic), P/B >>100 in open ocean
• Dissolution: planktic forams fragment,
dissolve before benthics; deep-sea floor low
P/B values indicate depth below lysocline
• Surface productivity: more difficult, but at
higher food supply productivity (or: in
shallower waters) more benthic foraminifera
20.
21.
22. BouDagher-Fadel, M.K., Banner, F.T. and Whittaker, J.E., 1997. Early Evolutionary
History of Planktonic Foraminifera, British Micropalaeontological Society
Publication Series, Chapman and Hall Publishers, pp 269.
Haynes, J.R., 1981. Foraminifera. MacMillan, London, pp 433.