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RDTALIDACEAE

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 636 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RDTALIDACEAE  .—Shells vitreous, finely perforate; walls thick, often

double, but without an intermediate party-layer traversed by canals; form usually
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spiral or trochoid . Discorbina (Parker & Jones) (fig . 4, 16) ; Planorbulina (d'
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Orb.) (fig . 4, 17); Rotalia• (
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tarok.) (
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figs . 23, 1, 2; 7, 2s); Calcarina (d b.) (fig . 23, 10); Polytrema (Risso 23, 9) . b sections showing dimorphism . (From Lister.) a, Megalospheric shell X 5o, showing
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uniform growth, biloculine throughout . b, Microspheric shell X 90, showing multiform growth, quinqueloculine at first, and then multiform . XI . NUMMULINIDACEAE.—AS in . Rotalidaceae, but with a thicker finely perforated shell, often well
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developed, and a supplementary
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skeleton traversed by branching canals as an additional party-wall between the proper chamber-walls .

Nonionina (d'Orb.) (fig . 4, 19) Fusiu- Tina (

Fischer) (fig . 20) ; Polystomella (Lamk.) (figs . 4, 16; 8); Operculina (d'Orb.) (fig . 9); Heterostegina•(d'Orb.) (fig . 16) ; Cycloclypeus (Carptr.) (fig. flagellate gametes. nuclei of megalospheric form . 15); Nummulites (Lamk.) (figs. to, II, Conjugation, [zygote . 3, Nuclei . 12, 13, 14) . Microspheric individual produced from 4, Nuclei in multiple division . "Eozoon canadense," described as a
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species of this The same resolved itself into pseudo- 5, Chromidia derived from 4. order by J . W .

Dawson and Carpenter, has been pronounced by a series of enquirers, most of whom chamber; Cornuspira (Schultze) (fig . 3); Miliola (Lamk.), started with a belief in its organic structure, to be merely a comincluding as subgenera Spiroloculina (d'Orb.) (figs . 3 and plea
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mineral
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concretion in ophicalcite, a rock composed of an 22) ; Triloculina (d'Orb.) (fig . 3) ; Biloculina (d'Orb.) admixture of silicates (mostly
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serpentine and
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pyroxene) and (fig . 3) ; Uniloculina (d'Orb.) ; Quinqueloculina (d'Orb.) ;
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calcite . Peneroplis (Montfort) (figs . 22, 3; 3), with form Dendritina (fig . 4, 1) ; Orbiculina (Lamk.) (fig . 6-8) ; Orbitolites (Lamk.) (figs . 5, 6); Vertebralina (d'Orb.) (fig . 22); Squamulina (Sch.) (fig . 22); Calcituba (Schaudinn) .

VI . TEXTULARIADACEAE.—Shells perforate, vitreous or (in the larger forms) arenaceous, in two or three alternating ranks (distichous or tristichous) . Textularia (Defrance) (fig . 21) . Modified from F . Schaudinn, in

Lang's Zoologie . A, Young megalospheric individual. podiospores which are growing into B, Adult decalcified. new megalospheric individuals . C, Later stage, resolving itself into two 1,
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Principal nucleus, and 2, subsidiary D, E, F, Distribution in Vertical Space.—Owing to their lack of
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organs for active locomotion the
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Foraminifera are all crawling or attached, with the exception of a few genera (very rich in species, however) which float near the
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surface of the ocean, constituting
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part of the pelagic
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plankton (q.v.) . Thus the majority are littoral or deep-sea, sometimes attached to other bodies or even burrowing in the tests of other Foraminifera; most of the fresh-
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water forms are sapropelic, inhabiting the layer of organic debris at the surface of the bottom mud ditches of pools, ponds and lakes . The deep-sea species below a certain
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depth cannot possess a calcareous shell, for this would be dissolved; and it is in these that we find limesalts sometimes replaced by
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silica . The pelagic floating genera are also specially modified . Their shell is either thin or extended many times by long slender tapering spines, and the
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protoplasm outside has the same character as that of the
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Radiolaria (q.v.), being differentiated into jelly containing enormous vacuoles and traversed by reticulate strands of granular protoplasm .

These coalesce into a peripheral

zone from which protrude the pseudo-in
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glauconite (a green ferrous silicate, whose composition has not yet been accurately determined) are, however, frequently
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left . Glauconitic casts of perforate shells, notably Globigerina, have been found in
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Lower
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Cambrian (e.g . Hollybush
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Sandstone), and the shells themselves in Siberian limestones of that age . It is only when we pass into the
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Silurian
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Wenlock
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limestone that sandy shells make their appearance . Above this horizon Foraminifera are more abundant as constituents, partial or principal of calcareous rocks, the genus Endothyra being indeed almost confined to Carboniferous beds . The genus Fusulina (fig . 20) and Saccammina (fig . 19) give their names (from their a, Exterior of Saccammina. f, Nautiloid Lituola, exterior . b, The same laid open. g Chambered interior . c, Portion of test more highly h, Portion of labyrinthic cham- magnified. ber wall, showing component d, Pilulina . [magnified. sand-grains . e, Portion of test more highly pods, here rather radiate than reticulate .

Most genera and most species are

cosmopolitan; but
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local differences are often marked . Foraminifera abound in the
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shore sands and the crevices of
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coral reefs . The membranous shelled forms decay without leaving traces . The sandy or calcareous shells of dead Foraminifera constitute a large proportion of littoral sand, both below and above tide marks; and, as shown in the
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boring .on Funafuti, enter largely into the constituents of coral rock . They may accumulate in the mud of the bottom to constitute Foraminiferal ooze . The source of these shells in the latter case is double: (1) shells of bottom-dwellers accumulate on the spot; (2) shells of dead plankton forms sink down in a continuous shower, to form a layer at the bottom of the ocean, during which
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process the spines are dissolved by the sea-water . Thus is formed an ooze known as " Globigerina-ooze," being formed largely of that genus and its ally Hastigerina; below 3000 fathoms even the tests themselves are dissolved . Casts of their bodies respective abundance) to two limestones of the Carboniferous series . Porcellanous shells become abundant only from the
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Lias upwards . The glauconitic grains of the
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Greensand formations are chiefly foraminiferal casts .
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Chalk is well known to consist largely of foraminiferal shells, mostly vitreous, like the north
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Atlantic globigerina ooze . In the Maestricht chalk more littoral conditions prevailed, and we find such large-sized species as Orbitoides (vitreous) and Orbitolites (porcellanous; figs .

5, 6), &c . In the

Eocene Tertiaries the Calcaire Grossier of the Paris basin is mainly composed of Miliolid forms . Nummulites occur in
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English beds and in the Paris basin; but the
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great beds of these, forming
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reef-like masses of limestone, occur farther south, extending from the Pyrenees through the
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southern and eastern
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Alps to
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Egypt,
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Sinai, and on to north India . The
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peculiar structure occurring in the Lower Laurentian limestone, as well as other limestones of Archean age described as a Nummulitaceous genus, " Eozoon," by Carpenter and Dawson, and abundantly illustrated in the 9th edition of his
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encyclopaedia, is now universally regarded as of inorganic origin . " Looking r, Spirolxulina planulata,
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Lamarck, showing five "coils"; porcellanous . 2, Young ditto, with shell dissolved and protoplasm stained so as to show the seven nuclei n . 3, Spiraling (Peneroplis); a sculptured imperfectly coiled shell; porcellanous . 4, Vertebralina, a
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simple shell consisting of chambers succeeding one another in a straight
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line; porcellanous . 4, 6, Thurammitsa papillata, Brady, a sandy form . 5 is broken open so as to show an inner chamber;
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recent . X 25 . 7, Haplophragmium canariensis. a sandy form; recent .

8, Nucleated reproductive bodies (bud-spores) of Haliphysema. p, Squamulina laevis, M . Schultze; X 40; a simple porcellanous Miliolide . ro, Protoplasmic core removed after treatment with weak chromic

acid from the shell of Haliphysema tumanovitzii, Bow. n, Vesicular nuclei, stained with haematoxylin . (After Lankester.) rr, Haliphysema tumanovitzii; X 25 diam.; living specimen, showing the wineglass-shaped shell built up of sand-grains and sponge-spicules, and the abundant protoplasm p, issuing from the mouth of the shell and spreading partly over its projecting constituents . rz, Shell of Astrorhiza limicala, Sand.; X 'y; showing the branching of the test on some of the rays usually broken away in preserved specimens (
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original) . 13, Section of the shell of bfarsipella, showing thick walls built of sand-grains.FIG . 23.—Perforata . z, Spiral arrangement of simple chambers of a Reticularian shell, as in small Rotalia . 2, Ditto, with double septal walls, and supplemental shell-substance (shaded), as in large Rotalia . 3,
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Diagram to show the mode in which successively-formed chambers may completely embrace their predecessors, as in Frondicularia . 4, Diagram of a simple straight series of non-embracing chambers, as in Nodo. saris . 5, Hasligerina murrayi, Wyv .

Thomson. a . Bubbly (vacuolated) protoplasm, en-closing b, the perforated Globigerina-like shell (conf. central capsule of Radiolaria) . From the peripheral protoplasm project, not only
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fine pseudopodia, but hollow spines of calcareous
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matter, which are set on the shell, and have an axis of active protoplasm . Pelagic;
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drawn in the living state . 6, Globigerina bulloides, d'Orb., showing the punctiform perforations of the shell and the main aperture . 7, Fragment of the shell of Globigerina, seen from within, and highly magnified. a, Fine perforations in the inner shell substances; b,
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outer (secondary) shell substance . Two coarser perforations are seen in section, and one lying among the smaller . 8, Orbulina universa, d'Orb . Pelagic example, with adherent radiating calcareous snipes (hollow), and internally a small Globigerina shell . It is probably a develop-
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mental phase of Globigerina. a, Orbulina shell; b, Globigerina shell . 9, Polytrema miniaceum, Lin.; x 12 . Mediterranean .

Example of a branched adherent calcareous perforate Recticularian . so, Calcarina spengleri, Gmel.; X so .

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Tertiary, Sicily . Shell dissected so as to show the spiral arrangement of the chambers, and the copious secondary shell substance.
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a2, a3, a+, Chambers of three successive coils in section, showing the thin
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primary wall (finely tubulate) of each; b, b, b, b, perforate surfaces of the primary wall of four tiers of chambers, from which the secondary shell substance has been cleared away; c', c', secondary or intermediate shell substance in section, showing coarse canals; d, section of secondary shell substance at right angles to c'; e, tubercles of secondary shell sub-stance on the surface; f, /, club-like processes of secondary shell substance . at the almost universal diffusion of existing Foraminifera and the continuous accumulation of their shells over vast areas of the ocean-bottom, they are certainly doing more than any ether
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group of organisms to
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separate carbonate of lime from its solution in sea-water, so as to restore to the solid crust of the earth what is being continuously withdrawn from it by solution of the calcareous materials of the
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land above sea-level." (E . R . Lankester, "Protozoa," Ency . Brit . 9th ed.)
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Historical.—The Foraminifera were discovered as we have seen by A. d'Orbigny . C . E . Ehrenberg added a large number of species, but it was to F .

Dujardin in 1835 that we owe the recognition of their true zoological position and the characters of the living

animal . W . B . Carpenter and W . C . Williamson in England contributed largely to the study of the shell, the latter being the first to call attention to its multiform character in the development'of a single species, and to utilize the method of thin sections, which has proved so fertile in results . W . K . Parker and H . B . Brady, separately, and in collaboration, described an enormous number of forms .in a series of papers, as well as in the monograph by the latter of the Foraminifera of the " Challenger " expedition . Munier-Chalmas and Schlumberger brought out the fact of dimorphism in the group, which was later elucidated and incorporated in the full cytological study of the
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life-cycle of Foraminifera by J .

J . Lister and F . Schaudinn, independently, but with concurrent results . Appendix.—The XENOPHYOPHORIDAE are asmallgroup of bottom-dwelling

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Sarcodina which show a certain resemblance to arenaceous Foraminifera, though observations in the living state show that the character of the pseudopodia is lacking . The multinucleate protoplasm is contained in branching tubes, aggregated into masses of definite form, bounded by a
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common wall of
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foreign bodies (sponge spicules, &c.) cemented into a membrane . The cytoplasm contains granules of BaSO4 and pellets of faecal matter . All that is known of
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reproduction is the
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resolution of the pellets into uninucleate cells . (F . E . Schultze . Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition, vol. xi., 1905, pt . 1.) (M .

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CHARLES READE (1814-1884)

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