Microfossils Flashcards
Name the three Foraminifera groups
-Calcareous Benthonic
-Agglutinated Benthonic
-Planktonic
Calcareous Benthonic environment
Brackish- Fully marine - hypersaline
Calcareous Benthonic temporal range
Cambrian to recent
Agglutinated Benthonic environment
March - Estuarine - Brackish - fully marine
Agglutinated Benthonic temporal range
Cambrian to recent
Planktonics environment
Fully marine oceanic (rare at depths)
Planktonics temporal range
Middle Jurassic to recent
Calcareous nannoplankton environment
Fully Marine Oceanic , rare at depth shallow than middle shelf
Calcareous nannoplankton temporal range
Late Triassic to Recent
How do we get chalk cliffs composed of nannofossils?
Pteropods (planktonic gastropods)!
Pterpods feed on coccoliths –> their ‘waste matter’ contains concentrations of undigested coccoliths.These pellets are large and heavy enough to sink down through the water column.
The waste matter biodegrades leaving behind coccoliths on the sea floor.
What is ‘Palynology’?
The study of organic walled fossils
What is this?
Dinoflagella cyst (organic walled fossil)
Dinoflagella temporal range
Triassic to recent
Dinoflagella environments
beach sand
snow & ice
fresh, brackish and seawater
in arctic and antarctic
what is ‘Acritarchs’
An artificial group for marine nannofossils ‘Off uncertain origin’
what ‘Acritarchs’ is this? give its environment.
Acanthomorph
-Common in mesozoic and cenozoic
-Only in low salinity water
scientific name for green algae
Chlorophyceae
