700 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



The ever-increasing demand for gas and petroleum products over large areas 

 of the world intensified stratigraphic investigations and paleontologic research. 

 Foraminifera began to play an important role in the determination of the geo- 

 logic area of strata associated with the occurrence of oil. Thick deposits of shale 

 with a wide areal geographic distribution often are nearly barren of diagnostic 

 metazoan invertebrate fossils but are rich in foraminifera and other microscopic 

 organisms. Because of their small size, well preserved faunas consisting of a 

 vast number of individuals may be obtained from small samples of rock such as 

 drill cores. The growing demand for scientifically trained investigators in micro- 

 paleontology soon led to the introduction of special courses in many universities 

 where opportunity was available for instruction in this field. The larger oil 

 companies began to add micropaleontologists to their geological staffs and some 

 companies established special departments with well-equipped laboratories for 

 handling this kind of work. Many important contributions to foraminiferal re- 

 search have resulted from investigations carried on by those associated with the 

 oil industry. Not only the universities of North America but those in other 

 parts of the world as well have contributed to the description of new species 

 and genera and their stratigraphic relationships. Increasing attention is being 

 devoted to this kind of research by national and state surveys with the publica- 

 tion of many important papers and monographs concerned with foraminiferal 

 faunas. Such investigations have been augmented by scientific and professional 

 societies and academies throughout the world. Conspicuous among those in 

 North Ameria are the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research, the 

 Paleontological Research Association and the Paleontological Society, and the 

 Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists. 



As the result of investigations during the past one hundred years there have 

 been described about 4,000 species of Foraminifera distributed through nearly 

 300 genera. The practical application of micropaleontology has involved the use 

 of species in local basins for deciphering the succession of strata as exposed at 

 the surface and in the recognition of such beds under a deep covering of younger 

 deposits as revealed in the cores obtained by drilling. Only a part of this de- 

 tailed information has been available to those paleontologists concerned with the 

 more purely scientific aspects of investigation, including the regional distribu- 

 tion, stratigraphic succession over wide areas, and ecological relationships. How- 

 ever, an increasing record of statistical data in recent years has made possible 

 the publication of important papers dealing with an understanding of the 

 ecology of assemblages, the influence of environmental changes in the composi- 

 tion of faunas from the study of living species, variation in species, and world- 

 wide succession of faunal zones. From such research, modifications are being 

 made in phylogenetic classification and in the evolution of different groups of 

 foraminifera. 



Porifera: In the early part of the nineteenth century there was uncertainty 

 whether sponges were animals or plants. The group was investigated by Robert 

 Grant of England, who in 1825 ascertained their affinity with the animal king- 

 dom. Seventy-five species were described by Goldfuss (with G. Munster) in his 

 Petrefacta Germaniae published in 1826, but the morphology of the group was 

 still little known. Fossil sponges from the Upper Cretaceous of England were 

 studied by Toulmin Smith in 1847-1848 with special attention to the structure 



