Taxonomy

The photographs below, of modern planktonic foraminifera, were assembled in the early 1960’s by Dr. Allan Bé, a distinguished micropaleontologist who worked at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. For almost 50 years they have been passed around and used by many labs and taxonomists and were published as a complete set in 1977. With the permission of Elsevier* and Allan’s colleagues, I am posting them here so they will continue to be of use to “bug-pickers” around the world.

Species identification key can be found below.

Click thumbnails for full-size images:


Identification Key:

species 1 – Hastigerina pelagica
species 2 – Hastigerina digitata
species 3 – Orbulina universa
species 4 – Globigerinoides ruber
species 5 – Globigerinoides conglobatus
species 6 – Globigerinoides sacculifer (6c with sac)
species 7 – Sphaeroidinella dehiscens
species 8 – Globigerina falconensis
species 9 – Globigerina bulloides
species 10 – Globigerina calida
species 11 – Globigerina digitata
species 12 – Globigerinella aequilateralis
species 13 – Globigerinella adamsi
species 14 – Globigerina rubescens
species 15 – Globigerina quinqueloba
species 16 – Globigerina humilis
species 17 – Glogorotalia pumilio
species 18 – Globigerinita glutinata
species 19 – Globigerinita uvula (also known as G. bradyi)
species 20 – Globigerinita iota
species 21 – Globigerinoides tenellus
species 22 – Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (a-e are left-coiling; f-j are right-coiling)
species 23 – Neogloboquadrina dutertrei
species 24 – Globoquadrina hexagona
species 25 – Globoquaadrina conglomerata
species 26 – Pulleniatina obliquiloculata
species 27 – Globorotalia inflata
species 28 – Globorotalia scitula
species 29 – Globorotalia theyeri
species 30 – Globorotalia crassaformis
species 31 – Globorotalia crotonensis
species 32 – Globorotalia cavernula
species 33 – Globorotalia hirsuta
species 34 – Globorotalia truncatulinoides
species 35 – Globorotalia menardii
species 36 – Globorotalia menardii gibberula
species 37 – Globorotalia neoflexuosa
species 38 – Globorotalia tumida
species 39 – Candeina nitida


*Reprinted from “Oceanic Micropaleontology”, Volume 1, Allan W. H. Bé, An Ecological, Zoogeographic and Taxonomic Review of Recent Planktonic Foraminifera, pp. 1-100, Copyright 1977, with permission from Elsevier.