foraminifera

plural foraminiferas

1. Synonym of foraminifer (“any of a large group of aquatic amoeboid protists of the subphylum Foraminifera, characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm that among other things is used for catching food, often with a calcareous shell with many holes through which pseudopodia protrude”).First known use mid 19th c.

   By the slow accumulation of dead shells, corals, &c., cemented by the smaller tests of foraminifera, the Coralline Crag eventually attained a thickness of fifty feet.

   1872, J[ohn] E[llor] Taylor, “The Story of the ‘Crags’”, in M[ordecai] C[ubitt] Cooke, editor, Hardwicke’s Science-Gossip: An Illustrated Medium of Interchange and Gossip for Students and Lovers of Nature, volume XIII, number 84, London: Robert Hardwicke, […], →OCLC, page 272, column 1

   5 more examples

   This elegant Foraminifera has long been one of the best known of recent species; in its young state it is one of the most abundant organisms in the Cuban sand: in this immature form it appears a Foraminifera of the ordinary spiral type; […]

   1850, J. W., “Proceedings of the Microscopical Society of London. [Report of William Crawford Williamson’s paper “On the Minute Structure of the Calcareous Shells of Some Recent Species of Foraminifera”.]”, in Edward Newman, editor, The Zoologist: A Popular Miscellany of Natural History, volume VIII, London: John Van Voorst, […], →OCLC, page 2685

   The best method of examining chalk for minute Foraminifera is this: […] The balsam gradually penetrates into the cells, the black rings of the air-bubbles disappear, and the minute, frequently very elegant cells of the Foraminifera become visible.

   1875, J. W. Griffith, Arthur Henfrey, “CHALK”, in J. W. Griffith, Martin Duncan, M[iles] J[oseph] Berkeley, T[homas] Rupert Jones, editors, The Micrographic Dictionary; a Guide to the Examination and Investigation of the Structure and Nature of Microscopic Objects, 3rd edition, volume I (Text), London: John Van Voorst, […], →OCLC, page 154, column 1

   Several forms were met with [at 2,800 fathoms] which apparently do not occur on the surface, particularly a number of species of a group which is so far as we know entirely undescribed. It seems to be intermediate between the Radiolarians and the Foraminiferas, resembling the former in the condition and appearance of the sarcode and in the siliceous composition of the test, and the latter in external form.

   1875 November 25, “The Work of the Challenger”, in Nature: A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, volume XIII, number 317, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1876, →OCLC, page 70, column 2

   Careful preparation of a fragment of chalk usually brings to light remains, sometimes well preserved, of foraminifera (Rotalina ornata, Cristellaria rotulata, Globigerina bulloides).

   1879, A. Ge., “GEOLOGY”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, 9th edition, volume X, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, page 358, column 1

   Yet more wonderful and beautiful than the Amœbas are the Rhizopoda called Foraminiferas. The hard word Foraminifera means to carry an aperture or opening, and is used as the name of an immense number of tiny creatures living in thin shells with openings in them, though which the inhabitants send out the threads all Rhizopoda have the power of making from the substance of their bodies.

   1882, N[ancy] D’Anvers [pseudonym; Nancy Regina Emily Meugens Bell], Lowest Forms of Water Animals: An Illustrated Natural History Reader (Science Ladders; V), New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], →OCLC, pages 12–13

   Synonyms: foraminifer

1. pluralplural of foraminiferon
2. pluralplural of foraminiferum