NUMMULITES. 



381 



The amazing variety of form of the Foraminifera is no less 

 remarkable than the elegance of their delicately chiselled shells, 

 and may well be called immense, as no less than 2,400 living 

 and fossil species have already been distinguished by naturalists, 

 and a far greater number is probably still nameless and 

 unknown. Though generally so minute that the diameter of 



"a. la 



Various forma of Foraminifera. 



ff. Lagena striata, a'. Nodosaria rugosa. b. Marginulina raphanus. 



V . Longitudinal section of shell or ditto, c. Polystomella crt'spa, with its pseudopodia protruded. 



d. Nummulites lenticutoris, shown in horizontal section, e. Cassidulina Uevigata. 



/. Textularia globulosa. g. Miliolina semmulwm. g*t Animal of Miliolina removed from its shell. 



the pores through which they protrude their filaments usually 



only ranges from 



of an inch yet the diminutive 



world of the Foraminifera has also its giants, particularly 

 among the fossil species, such as the Nummulites, which occur 

 in such prodigious numbers in the limestone of the Egyptian 

 pyramids, and whose flattened lenticular coin-like forms ' d) 

 attain the comparatively gigantic diameter of several inches. 

 Thus the material with which the proud Pharaohs of the Nile 

 constructed their colossal tombs was originally piled up at the 

 bottom of the sea by countless generations of shell-cased 

 Protozoa. 



The Foraminifera are among the oldest inhabitants of our 

 globe,* and as the present ocean contains them in countless 



* The Eozoon canadense, the oldest of known organic remains, found in the 

 Upper Laurentian series, which preceded the Cambrian formation, is a Foraminifer. 

 Millions of years must have passed since it first felt and moved. 



