Home | Session 4 | Shallow Marine Pg 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Shallow Marine Environments and Paleoenvironments: Reefs, Beaches and Basins
Presented
by Carol Tang
California Academy of Sciences
Often we use microfossils for reconstructions, because:
- Widespread
- Can get large numbers in small samples
- Sensitive to environmental conditions
- Don't move around a lot
- Evolve quickly
- Many features for use in identification
This is a foraminifera with the soft tissue extruding out from the skeleton. The illustrations right and left show the diversity of benthic (seafloor) foraminifera. The foraminifera in the classroom exercise come from the California Borderlands (discussed above). Many foraminifera are found in specific depths and environments.
updated April 1, 2002
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