My name is Michael Hesemann, I live in Hamburg, Germany.
I am interested in Earth Sciences, hiking and photography as a hobby.
me in front looking back, exhausted after manual drilling, while analysis of the core is undertaken by our instructor
Foraminifera caught my interest when participating in a course on micropaleontology at the local Volkshochschule of Hamburg in 2007. For 1+1/2 years Dr. Uwe Marheinecke instructed and inspired all of us in microscopy, collecting sands, cracking rocks in order to find the remnants of microfossils and recent individuals.
My collection of foraminifera has grown and soon the question arose, how to present them to others. I have chosen to take photos rather then fix them in plummer-cells. My apologies for taxational errors and the questionable quality of the fotos presented here. It is neither an easy task nor is my focus on photographing-techniques.
I want to show the foraminifera in such a way that you may be able to give a taxation on what you have found at a specific location or in a region. Not the nicest but most representative tests are chosen and a notice is given on damages. SEM-imaging is very detailed, but only the surface is shown and the specimen have to be fixed. Only one image may be shot. Optical images lack the quality, but show internal structures and a specimen may be photographed with different views.
As the collection has grown I added a database and query in order to more easily compare and sort images. Some taxational inconsistencies are revealed partly reflecting inconsistencies in the literature. For my taxational suggestions I mention the source(s) on which they are based.
60000+ genera of foraminifera have be found on earth and fiftyninethousandandsomething are missing in this collection. I am grateful for your participation..
The permanent enlargement of the collection is only possible with the help of my co-workers of the "Arbeitsgruppe Mikropaläontologie" in the "Mikrobiologische Vereinigung Hamburg". To be mentioned are Karl-Otto processing so many samples for me, Dr. Rosenfeldt handling the SEM, Joachim, Dieter and Matthias discussing technical and taxonomical issues.
This project is non-commercial and wants to foster the awareness about earth-nature and one of its most abundant creatures.
Michael Hesemann, Hamburg 2010
Read my abstract on the Foraminifera.eu-project published in the Abstracts and Excursion Guide, 7th Micropalaeontological Workshop of the Grzybowski Foundation, 2009
Study Foram
About
Search
