Abstract

Foraminifera are a fantastically useful group of protist microfossils with an unrivalled fossil record. Benthic species are present through the entire Phanerozoic, but they evolved into planktonic habitats in the Jurassic, diversifying in the mid-Cretaceous. Now foram-rich sediments are accumulating over about a quarter of the solid surface of the planet. In this talk Professor Pearson gives a personal perspective on a variety of foram-related topics. He explains how they are used to date and correlate sediment, how they can be tracked continuously through the strata, revealing patterns and processes of evolution, and how their calcite shells embed climate proxies, recording a great deal of information about Earth’s history including temperature and carbon dioxide levels. He ends with an account of the almost magical powers of agglutinated forams.