Research Training Program

Nancy Price
The Richard Stockton College of NJ
Pomona, New Jersey

Dr. Brian Huber, Ph.D.
Supervising Scientist
Department of Paleobiology

"I can honestly say that this has been an invaluable learning experience."

Foraminifera are single-celled, shelled microorganisms that can be found in both marine and freshwater habitats. They can either be free-swimming, called planktonic, or bottom dwelling, called benthic. Fossil foraminifera preserved in ocean sediments can tell a researcher a lot about the time in which they lived, particularly by studying their evolution and the ratios of carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in their shells. Foraminifera, in particular, have helped scientists better understand the nature of end-Cretaceous extinction event that marked the end of the dinosaurs. Foraminifera were studied in this project in order to better understand the nature of the extinction event that marks the transition between two sections of time, the Aptian and the Albian ages, within the Early Cretaceous. This extinction event is distinguished by a significant change in the different types of planktonic foraminifera present. This change includes a shift to smaller-sized species, a loss of the species that display the pore mound wall texture, which is characterized by the accumulation of shell material around pores creating mounds, and a decrease in the overall number of different foraminifera species present. The changes marking this event can be best seen in the unique and perfectly preserved specimens from the samples taken from Ocean Drilling Program Site 1049, located over 300 miles east of north Florida. Stable isotope analysis of selected samples from across the Aptian-Albian boundary not only provide data on foraminiferal ecology, such as where each of the foraminifera species lived in the vertical water column, but also provide climate and oceanographic data. The stable isotope data suggests that there was a warming trend of the ocean waters that began at the Aptian-Albian boundary. This warming coincides with the beginning of Ocean Anoxic Event 1b, which was a time when there were low amounts of oxygen in the ocean waters (see the project done by 1998 RTP intern Molly Markey). The fact that both the changes in the foraminifera and the changes in the stable isotope data occur simultaneously and in conjunction with the beginning of the OAE 1b suggests that the event had a profound effect on the life living at the time as well as the climate and the oceanography. However, additional research is needed to isolate a definable cause of for changes in the different groups of foraminifera across the Aptian-Albian boundary.

This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, Award Number DBI-02435123.

Letter of gratitude