Marginal marine agglutinated foraminifera: affinities for mineral phases

Abstract

Abstract. The major agglutinated constituents in test material of marginal marine foraminifera are identified as α-quartz and clay particles using complementary spectroscopic techniques. Electron dispersive scattering analysis, micro-laser Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic techniques revealed detail about elemental and mineral polymorph constituents in test walls. Additionally, FTIR identifies the existence of organic cements and lining materials in wall structures. Micro-laser Raman specifically characterized the titanium oxide mineral, anatase, as a distinctive fraction of agglutinate in Ammobaculites balkwilli Haynes. The mineral represents ≈10% of the test material, but comprises a minor component of the sediment and is identified in sediments only after heavy mineral separation. The enhanced concentration of anatase in the test of A. balkwilli suggests that there is a preferential selection for anatase. This provides further evidence that certain foraminifera can select grains specifically, which implies that there exists a selective mechanism and interaction between the organic (secreted) phases in the test walls and inorganic (grain surface) materials.

Holocene foraminiferal and geochemical records in the coastal karst dolines of Cres Island, Croatia

“…However, our results proved that although TOC content was high, this species occurred in the brackish water environment with high percentages of sand (up to 75%). Grain-size distribution, as well as the mineralogical composition of the sediment, has important implications for agglutinated taxa (ALLEN et al, 1999;ARMYNOT DU CHÂTELET et al, 2008;ARMYNOT DU CHÂTELET et al, 2013). SEM-EDS analysis showed that identified agglutinated foraminifera from the Marinska pond used variable mineral grains for building their tests (quartz, amphibole, mica and feldspars) (Fig.…”

Selective agglutination of tourmaline grains by foraminifera in a deep-water flysch environment (Eocene Hieroglyphic beds, Silesian Nappe, Polish Outer Carpathians)

“…Other au thors ob served that some spe cies of ag glu ti nated foraminifera ex hibit clear af fin i ties to wards spe cific min eral phases, in volv ing a cu ri ous abil ity to dis tin guish be tween in divid ual min er als (e.g., Heron- Allen and Earland, 1912;Heron-Allen, 1915;Murray, 1971;Jorgensen, 1977;Allen et al, 1999;Laca et al, 2002;Kaminski et al, 2008). In case of the ma te rial ana lysed in the course of this study, tour ma line grains are con cen trated by se lected tax o nomic groups, namely Bathysiphon, Nothia, Psammosiphonella, Reophax, Recurvoides, Trochamminoides and Paratrochamminoides (Ap pendix 1).…”

“…The size of the grains seg re gated by spe cific spe cies is also pref er en tial (e.g., Heron-Allen, 1915;Smith and Kasler, 1970;Gooday nad Claugher, 1989;Allen et al, 1999;Bartholdy et al, 2005). Tour ma line grains typ i cal for flysch sed i ments rep re sent a rel a tively large build ing com po nent of the ana lysed tests , which is why their high est pro por tion oc curs in the coarse-grained tests of i.e.…”

“…Quartz grains con sti tute the most com mon de tri tal compo nent, but there are also tests com posed, partly or en tirely, of or ganic ma te rial, i.e. coccolihts, sponge spicules, tests of other foraminifera, di a toms, radio lar ians, or fine frag ments of bi valve tests (Smith and Kaesler, 1970;Tendal et al, 1982;Commeau et al, 1985;Cart wright et al, 1989;Gooday and Claugher, 1989;Gooday et al, 1995aGooday et al, , 2002Gooday et al, , 2010Allen et al, 1999;Gooday and Smart, 2000; Thom sen and Ras mus sen, 2008 and ref er ences therein). Be sides quartz, the fol low ing in or ganic de tri tal com po nents are ob served in the foraminifera test walls: cal cite, ar agon ite, do lo mite, glauconite, feld spars, micas, pyroxene, hornblende, mag ne tite, py rite as well as other heavy min er als, e.g.…”

A deep-sea agglutinated foraminifer tube constructed with planktonic foraminifer shells of a single species

“…The use of grain type can seem relatively haphazard (Armynot du Châtelet et al, 2013) or it can be highly selective of both size and composition. Examples of selectivity include foraminifera that gather specific minerals, sometimes heavy ones, such as ilmenite (Makled and Langer, 2010), rutile (Cole and Valentine, 2006) and garnet (Allen et al, 1999), or particular biological clast types such as sponge spicules (Brady, 1879), echinoderm plates (Heron- Allen and Earland, 1909), or coccoliths (Holbourn and Kaminski, 1997;Thomsen and Rasmussen, 2008). It is also common for some agglutinated foraminifera to reuse the shells of dead planktonic foraminifera from the surrounding sediment in constructing their tubes (Brady, 1879;Cartwright et al, 1989).…”