Skittle Core Lab

Meet the forams

Now that you have figured out the distribution of your forams in the core sample, here's what they look like. You can print out this guide.

Mrs. King studied these forams in Antarctica. Here are her notes. You can also learn more about forams on the Web.

Astrammina rara

Pyrgo peruviana

Pyrgo are normally found in deep water: they can live in Explorers Cove because the water is very dark and cold
Unlike the other forams, it has many chambers in its shell. It adds them one at a time, first on one side, then on the other. This picture shows the newest and biggest chamber on the bottom, and the second newest is on the top
The shell is made out of calcium carbonate, like a clam shell, and is very hard

Photos of live Pyrgo. Notice the brown stuff around the "aperture" (where the reticulopods come out of the shell); they are eating.

Crithionina delacai

The cell body (which is white) is very gooey, and will explode if it touches the water surface (because its "surface tension" is lower than the water's). Other forams, like Astrammina, can survive being taken out of the water for a short time
The shell isn't glued together, like it is in Astrammina and Notodendrodes: instead, the foram holds the sand grains together with its reticulopodia
This foram is named after Dr. Ted DeLaca, an Antarctic scientist

Cornuspira antarctica

This foram also has a hard, calcium carbonate shell, but it has only two chambers: a very small one in the center, and the long coiled one
This foram can get very large: some of the older ones in Explorers Cove are half an inch (1 cm.) across
Forams like this are found all over the world

Cornuspira and relatives from the tropics
A closeup of the wall of the shell. The little calcium carbonate rods are randomly oriented, which makes the foram look shiny and white, like porcelain. (Pyrgo's shell looks like this too.)

Notodendrodes hyalinosphaira

Facts about Notodendrodes hyalinosphaira:

This species can be found either as a simple sphere or in the tree form shown in the picture
We think the tree helps the foram lift up its reticulopodia so it can catch floating food
"Hyalinosphaira" means "glassy ball"; it is named that because it often makes its shell out of clear quartz crystals