Foraminifera (Forams)- Invertebrate Paleontology | GEO GIRL

Forams are microscopic invertebrates that can be very useful in reconstructing paleoclimate (namely, paleotemperature), paleooceanography, paleobathymetry, and depositional environment (which is helpful in the search for oil). This video covers the systematics / classification, ecology, anatomy, reproduction, morphology, and evolution of foraminifers. Foraminifera are single-cellular protists and can be separated into two major groups based on living behavior, planktonic and benthic forams. Planktonic forams live in the water column and fall to the seafloor when they die. Benthic forams live on or in the seafloor. Planktonic and benthic forams have different morphologies and therefore can be easily told apart even in the fossil record. Another important distinction to be made among forams is their wall structure and composition. Foram walls (the walls of their tests or skeletons) can be calcareous (porcelaneous or microgranular), hyaline (glassy silica), or agglutinated (non-calcareous particles). They can also be distinguished between microspheric and megalospheric forms (aka: asexual and sexual forms) because they alternate generations. One of the most important groups of forams is Fusulinida. The fusulinids lived from the Mississippian to the Permian periods during the later Paleozoic. These fusulinids are great index fossils in that they have a short time range, distinctive morphology, and were geographically widespread and abundant during their reign. Fusuliniid wall structures showed clear evolutionary trends which are covered in this video as well. Lastly, the evolution of foraminifera, especially planktonic forams, shows cool trends, such as iterative evolution (repeated evolution) contradicting the rule that evolution cannot be repeated or reversed!

References:
Shout out to Dr. Jenny Rashall and Dr. Merlynd Nestell for their contribution to my knowledge on the topic of forams and paleo in general!

0:00 What are forams?
1:07 Planktonic vs. benthic forams
2:38 Why study forams?
3:51 General foram ecology
5:11 Foram reproduction
6:58 Specific foram ecology
12:00 Foram test morphology
18:18 Foram classification
19:57 Fusulinids !
27:58 Foram evolution
31:45 Upcoming content!
32:36 Bloopers!

Tools I use as a geologist/teacher/student:

Images:

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[GEOGIRL]

Hey guys! I have a correction about the hyaline forams, they are not actually glass (silica) they are just glassy textured calcite! My bad, sorry for the confusfion, hope this helps, and thank @Kyron 66 for catching my mistake! ;D <3

[fencingcoachw]

My favourite: Radiolarians. I 'discovered' them during my A-Level Geology studies. So cool, at the time to me they looked completely alien !

[davids]

Thank you VERY very much for all your videos! I went into mathematics and physics in my cursus but paleontology (and nature in general) always have been one of my greatest interests, and with you I feel like I am taking real paleontology classes - without all the harrassment of needing to pass a degree at the end ;-D
I love the very wide list of subjects you depict, each of your vids I watched helped me gather and organize my own knowledge into more structured and chronological events and facts.
To give you a basic example, I always knew since childhood there were multiple mass extinctions, but only since one of your vids I saw a couple weeks ago was I able to precisely pinpoint the others apart from the two major and most "popular" ones! Of course I could have forced myself to learn all by myself, but your vids made me WANT to know. And keep.

[njm]

Nature is even more amazing than i could possibly imagine.

[aadilbhat]

Love from Kashmir ❤
Very nicely explained

[michaeleisenberg]

Geo Girl, Thank you for this and all your videos--especially the organic/life topics. I love them. I was a bio major at UO, '79.
Today, July 4th, I was watching Foraminifera while at the gym, with Wimbledon on the elliptical screen--always weights first!
Which ties into your blouse. Stars 🌠. 4th of July 🚀. I like it. It looks good on you.

Running beneath the surface of this video and all your life form videos is the tremendous and dedicated work done by all the scientists and biologists who study and codify all these extinct animals. It is mind boggling the intricate anatomic detail including the myriad byzantine Greek anatomic terms. What is even more inexplicable, in my mind, is how many fossil hunters and paleontologists are there in the world, how many years have they been doing this, and how miles have they covered?

Nice shout out to your TA!

Best Wishes,

MikeE

[JoesFirewoodVideos]

Never heard of these creatures so I guess it’s better time that I learn!
I ❤️GEO GIRL

[SuperRl]

Can I just say how thankful I am for your videos !!!

[chiadmt]

I was curious about forams and found this video! Thank you!

[liamhackett]

You should be getting more views and probably will. Have been looking at earth science stuff on YT during lockdown. Oxford natural history do great lecture s and talks. Your work complements it spot on . Great channel .

[yayamal]

I will recommend this video for my undergraduate students

[purplesky]

great video! this channel is underrated.

[HoboMinerals]

This word goes through my head every day since I first heard it.. It’s a good word lol.. 😆 very informative, thank you so much for what you do!!!!

[jy]

Thank you so much for this video. Ever since I listened to Dr. Joan Bernhard talk about these little critters while she was on EV Nautilus last year I've been obsessed in wanting to learn more about them, but unfortunately it's hard to find any text on them at the library, in my area at least (Books be expensive). They are so cool, and honestly I had no idea existed until just last year. :')

[RoyMcAvoy]

Nice. My undergraduate thesis was also about foraminifera as biomarkers.

[kyron]

I like your videos, and think they are informative. Something to check, hyaline forams are not made of silica, they just have a glassy look due to the arrangement of calcite crystals.

[mi]

Congratulations for 1k subscribers ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[camelopardalus]

Evolution: "A funny thing happened on the way to the foram. Fusilinids!"

Sorry. I'll see myself out.

[NADA-ybxi]

Thank you it was useful
I studying from this video

[raysalmon]

*University of Pennsylvania* paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope for example,
stated that embryological development occasionally accelerated to create new stages of organization.
Some of the new stages related directly to environmental pressures:
the organism consciously strove to adapt itself by means of its "growth force."
Other new stages reflected more formal patterns of development.
Cope also integrated his evolutionary views into a broad, religious philosophy.
A universal consciousness, he believed, guided evolution and ensured its progress.
439 UHM class Darwinian Revolution