International Space Station
800mm Photograph
Image credit:
Image Science and Analysis
Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov) |
TRIPOLI, FORAMINIFERA - 32.89 N
13.18 E
The link is to images from beaches in
Tripoli.
Foraminifera are single-celled
protists with shells. Depending on the species, the shell
may be made of organic compounds, sand grains and other
particles cemented together, or crystalline calcite. The
dark brown structure is the test, or shell, inside which the
foram lives. Radiating from the opening are fine hairlike
reticulopodia, which the foraminifera uses to find and
capture food. The forams shown below are from the
Pleistocene Epoch making them about 1 million
years old.
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