What is Micropaleontology?
Micropaleontology is the field of study dealing with small fossils that are best studies with a microscope. Microfossils include a wide variety of microscopic remains of single-celled organisms, plants and animals.
Foraminifera
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Foraminifera are tiny, amoeba-like single-celled organisms that commonly have shells. They are characterized by thread-like extensions of their protoplasm called reticulating pseudopodia.
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They typically live in marine environments, some types on the bottom (benthic) and some in the water column (planktic).
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Their shells may be preserved in sediments and thus provide a record of past environments.
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Many species are also useful biostratigraphic indicators, which provide en estimate of a sediment's age.
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More information is available at the University of California Museum of Paleontology web site.
Nannofossils
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Nannofossils are the hard parts of single-celled golden-brown algae. These hard parts are extremely small calcite plates (called coccoliths) that are secreted by the algae as it grows.
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Calcareous nannofossils can be very abundant in the sediments at the bottom of the oceans of today and the past.
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More information is available at the US Geological Survey web page on nannofossils.
Pollen and Spores
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Pollen and spores provide a record of plant life in the past.
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Pollen are tiny grains produced by seed plants that contain the male reproductive cells of the plant. The organic-walled remains of pollen grains can be preserved in sediments and fossilized. Spores of non-seed producing plants such as ferns may also be preserved as organic-walled fossils.
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Because these types of grains may be produced in abundance by some land plants, palynology (the study of pollen, spores, and other organic-walled microfossils) can be useful for biostratigraphy and climate reconstruction, particularly in non-marine sediments.
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More information is available at the University of Arizona.
Conodonts
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Conodonts are small, tooth-like phosphatic microfossils found in sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic Era (and earliest Mesozoic Era).
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They are thought to be produced by an extinct jawless chordate that had some resemblance to eels.
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They are valuable biostratigraphic indicators as their color may be used to indicate the thermal history of sedimentary rock.
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More information is available at the University College London.
Radiolaria
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Radiolaria are minute, amoeba-like single-celled planktonic marine organisms that have intricate shells usually made of opaline silica.
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Their shells in ocean bottom sediments provide a useful record of climate and oceanography.
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More information is available at radiolaria.org.
Dinoflagellates
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Dinoflagellates are a group of single-celled, flagellated algae, some of which are preserved as organic-walled microfossils; as such, they are included in the field of palynology.
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Dinoflagellates mostly live in marine environments Their fossils are useful for biostratigraphy and interpretation of coastal and oceanic paleoenvironments.
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More information is available at the University of California Museum of Paleontology web site.
Ostracodes
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Ostracodes are small, bivalved crustaceans that may range from a fraction of a millimeter to many millimeters in size.
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They have a long geologic history, ranging back into the Paleozoic Era, with a wide variety of species occupying a wide range of environments, from oceans to bays to lakes to soils. More information is available at the web.
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Their shells are readily fossilized, making them useful for biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental analyses.
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More information is available at the University of California Museum of Paleontology web site.
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Others
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There are a number of other useful microfossil groups studied by micropaleontologists - diatoms, silicoflagellates, chitinozoans, among them.
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A search engine should yield a number of sites with helpful information.
All the aforementioned microfossils can be identified and studied on microscopes.