View source for Planktic foraminifera

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[[Image:Planktic.forams1.jpg|thumb|right|300px| <font size="2">Recent planktic (planktonic) foraminifers. Oblique view from the SEM. Downloaded from the [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images_topic.php3?img_id=17046&topic=oceans Earth Observatory NASA site], modified. See the [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/foraminifera_odp143_lrg.jpg full original image]]].

Planktic (planktonic) foraminifera can permanently float or drift in the water column. "They are widespread and have had rapidly evolving lineages". ([[BIBLIOGRAPHY|Armstrong & Brasier 2005]])

According to [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9302323&dopt=Abstract de Vargas et al. (1997)], "the phylogenetic analyses indicate a '''polyphyletic origin for the planktonic foraminifera'''. The Candeinidae, the Globorotaliidae, and the clade Globigerinidae + Hastigerinidae seem to have originated independently, at different epochs in the evolution of foraminifera. ... These variations may be related to different levels of adaptation to the planktonic mode of life."



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See: 

* [http://www.gsajournals.org/gsaonline/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2F0091-7613(1996)024%3C0200:BBOPF%3E2.3.CO%3B2 Benthic behavior of planktic foraminifera] by Heinz Hilbrecht and Hans R. Thierstein in Geology: Vol. 24, No. 3, 1996, pp. 200–202.

* [http://www.radiocarbon.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/plankton.htm Planktonic Foraminifera Ecology & Chemistry] by Richard G. Fairbanks [http://www.radiocarbon.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/plankton.htm http://www.radiocarbon.ldeo.columbia.edu/research/plankton.htm]

* [http://services.chronos.org/guideplankforam/main.htm Planktonic Foraminifera Guide] by Dr. Marius Dan Georgescu. An HTML-based illustrated guide to the taxonomy, descriptive morphology, and biostratigraphy of Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera.