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Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes

Larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) are important and prolific carbonate producers both in modern and ancient shallow tropical seas. During the Paleogene the genus Nummulites was particularly abundant with a global distribution, leading it to be frequently used in biostratigraphy. However, their evolu...

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Autores principales: Renema, Willem, Cotton, Laura
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4493699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26157635
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1072
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author Renema, Willem
Cotton, Laura
author_facet Renema, Willem
Cotton, Laura
author_sort Renema, Willem
collection PubMed
description Larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) are important and prolific carbonate producers both in modern and ancient shallow tropical seas. During the Paleogene the genus Nummulites was particularly abundant with a global distribution, leading it to be frequently used in biostratigraphy. However, their evolution is poorly understood as classification is Europe-centered and mostly based on external characters and equatorial thin sections. New occurrences from regions outside the northern Tethys which poorly fit in thus reference frame, show that a more rigid framework for the classification of Nummulites is needed. Here we apply micro computed-tomographical scanning, a tool that recently has become available, to visualise 3D chamber shape of Nummulites djokdjokartae and compare these to traditional morphometrical characters. We find that despite the regular shape in equatorial and axial thin section the irregular 3D chamber shape is not predicted by these sections. We argue that 3D reconstructions of Nummulites tests will be a great aid in improving our understanding of lineages within the genus Nummulites, and to elucidate its evolutionary and biogeographical history.
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spelling pubmed-44936992015-07-08 Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes Renema, Willem Cotton, Laura PeerJ Evolutionary Studies Larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) are important and prolific carbonate producers both in modern and ancient shallow tropical seas. During the Paleogene the genus Nummulites was particularly abundant with a global distribution, leading it to be frequently used in biostratigraphy. However, their evolution is poorly understood as classification is Europe-centered and mostly based on external characters and equatorial thin sections. New occurrences from regions outside the northern Tethys which poorly fit in thus reference frame, show that a more rigid framework for the classification of Nummulites is needed. Here we apply micro computed-tomographical scanning, a tool that recently has become available, to visualise 3D chamber shape of Nummulites djokdjokartae and compare these to traditional morphometrical characters. We find that despite the regular shape in equatorial and axial thin section the irregular 3D chamber shape is not predicted by these sections. We argue that 3D reconstructions of Nummulites tests will be a great aid in improving our understanding of lineages within the genus Nummulites, and to elucidate its evolutionary and biogeographical history. PeerJ Inc. 2015-07-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4493699/ /pubmed/26157635 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1072 Text en © 2015 Renema and Cotton http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Evolutionary Studies
Renema, Willem
Cotton, Laura
Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes
title Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes
title_full Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes
title_fullStr Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes
title_full_unstemmed Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes
title_short Three dimensional reconstructions of Nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes
title_sort three dimensional reconstructions of nummulites tests reveal complex chamber shapes
topic Evolutionary Studies
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4493699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26157635
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1072
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