Atlas of Benthic Foraminifera

An up-to-date atlas of an important fossil and living group, with the Natural History Museum.

Deep-sea benthic foraminifera have played a central role in biostratigraphic, paleoecological, and paleoceanographical research for over a century. These single–celled marine protists are important because of their geographic ubiquity, distinction morphologies and rapid evolutionary rates, their abundance and diversity deep–sea sediments, and because of their utility as indicators of environmental conditions both at and below the sediment–water interface. In addition, stable isotopic data obtained from deep–sea benthic foraminiferal tests provide paleoceanographers with environmental information that is proving to be of major significance in studies of global climatic change. This work collects together, for the first time, new morphological descriptions, taxonomic placements, stratigraphic occurrence data, geographical distribution summaries, and palaeoecological information, along with state-of-the-art colour photomicrographs (most taken in reflected light, just as you would see them using light microscopy), of 300 common deep-sea benthic foraminifera species spanning the interval from Jurassic – Recent. This volume is intended as a reference and research resource for post-graduate students in micropalaeontology, geological professionals (stratigraphers, paleontologists, paleoecologists, palaeoceanographers), taxonomists, and evolutionary (paleo)biologists.

Author Biography

Ann Holbourn is a paleoceanographer at the University ofKiel, Germany. Her main research interests focus on the evolutionand ecology of benthic foraminifera and their geochemicalapplications for reconstructing ocean circulation and climatechange over the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Andrew Henderson works in the oil and gas industry as aSenior Stratigrapher for Robertson, a CGG Company. After his PhDresearch into Jurassic foraminifera, Andrew joined the NaturalHistory Museum, London as a postdoctoral researcher andsubsequently became a curator in the Micropalaeontology Divisionwhere he has spent most of his career. He works with most groupsbut has special interest in the taxonomy of agglutinatedforaminifera and the biostratigraphy and systematics of benthonicforaminifera from the Middle East. Norman MacLeod is the former Keeper of Palaeontology, andcurrent Dean of Post-Graduate Education & Training, at TheNatural History Museum, London. His main research interests includeevolutionary palaeobiology, the patterns and causes of ancientextinction events, stratigraphy, palaeoceanography, and theevolution of body form in organisms.