THE FOEAMINIFEEA 



CHAPTER I 



INTEODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE NATURE AND OCCURRENCE 

 OF FORAMINIFERA— IMPORTANCE OF THEIR STUDY TO THE 

 ZOOLOGIST AND GEOLOGIST— THE STRUCTURE AND CLASSI- 

 FICATION OF THE PROTOZOA— THE POSITION OF THE 

 FORAMINIFERA IN THE PHYLUM PROTOZOA. 



WJiere to find Living Foraminifera. — The most 

 casual observer who takes a walk by the seashore, 

 especially if it be in a sheltered bay with a gently 

 sloping strand, will have noticed the sandy streaks 

 left by the receding tide. If this sand, which to the 

 eye appears like a collection of mere chalky and 

 sooty fragments, be examined with a pocket lens, 

 some of the whitish specks will be seen to be tiny 

 but perfect shells. These delicate little shells belong 

 to the lowest group or pliylum of animal life, and 

 they are known as Foraminifera, ' hole-bearers,' as 

 the name implies, on account of their internal septa 

 having perforations. 



There may be other Uttle organisms accompany- 

 ing the Foraminifera in this sand, such as the shells 

 or carapaces of bivalved crustaceans or Ostracoda, 

 the young shells or fry of molluscs, or even seeds of 



B 



