Foraminifera
Foraminifera
The Foraminifera ("hole bearers"), or forams for short, are a large phylum of amoeboid protists. They are among the most common marine plankton species. Forams have reticulating pseudopods, fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net.[1] They typically produce a test, or shell, which can have either one or multiple chambers, some becoming quite elaborate in structure.[2] These shells are made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) or agglutinated sediment particles. About 275,000 species are recognized, both living and fossil. They are usually less than 1 mm in size, but some are much larger, the largest species reaching up to 20 cm