''Quinqueloculina'' is a genus of

foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...

in the family Miliolidae. As with all miliolids the test of ''Quinqueloculina'' is composed of imperforate, porcelaneous calcite, often giving them a yellowish tint. As with the Miliolidae, the chambers are arranged in various planes, with two chambers per whorl. In ''Quinqueloculins'' the chambers are in planes set 72 degrees apart, but successive chambers are in planes separated by 144 degrees. The name ''Quinqueloculina'' comes from ''quinque'', the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for five. In ''Quinqueloculina'' five chambers are exposed to view on the outside, although the earlier three are sandwiched between the later two, one on one side, two on the other. Chambers are generally long and tubular, normally without integral floors, that function made by the underlying chamber. Some 30 or more species of ''Quinqueloculina'' have been named. ''Quinqueloculina'' is found in abundance around the coasts of the UK. High concentrations of one species of ''Quinqueloculina'' within the

Celtic Sea The Celtic Sea ; cy, Y Môr Celtaidd ; kw, An Mor Keltek ; br, Ar Mor Keltiek ; french: La mer Celtique is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits includ ...

are interpreted as a seasonal indicator of strong vertical mixing in that water body. In an experiment, trends in diversity, abundance and taxonomic composition of live foraminiferal assemblages were analyzed to replicate corer samples collected at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain over a thirteen-year period. Conclusions found that the miliolid ''Quinqueloculina'' sp. was virtually absent in multicore samples from 1989 to 1994, peaked in September 1996 (22%) when degraded phytodetritus was present on core surfaces, was less common in March 1997, and thereafter was relatively uncommon. However, horizontally sliced box-core samples revealed that large specimens were more abundant in March 1997, and also were concentrated in deeper sediment layers, than in September 1996. It is suggested that ''Quinqueloculina'' sp. migrated to the sediment surface in response to a 1996 flux event, grew, and reproduced, before migrating back into deeper layers as the phytodetrital food became exhausted. Overall, the abyssal time-series revealed decadal-scale changes among shallow-infaunal foraminifera, more or less coincident with changes in the megafauna, as well as indications of shorter-term events related to seasonally-pulsed phytodetrital inputs.

References

* Cushman Joseph A 1950 Foraminifera, their classification and economic use (4th ed) Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass *

Alfred R. Loeblich Jr Alfred R. Loeblich Jr (1914–1994) was an American micropaleontologist. He was married to Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich and the two co-authored a number of important works on the Foraminifera and related organisms. Biography Alfred R. Loeblich Jr ...

and

Helen Tappan Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, G ...

, 1964. Sarcodina Chiefly "Thecamoebians" and Foraminiferida; Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part C Protista 2. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press. * ____ 1988. Forminiferal Genera and their Classification. E-book

External links

Quinqueloculina on www.biolib.cz

Tubothalamea Foraminifera genera Fossil taxa described in 1826 {{foram-stub

See also

References

Further reading

External links