About

The Foraminifera.eu-Project wants to foster the interest in foraminifera. It builds a bridge between science and community. Experienced foraminiferologist get a platform to share their knowledge with inexperienced ones. We offer practical help in sample-processing, imaging and classification.
We want to build a resource which overcomes the flaws of the Linnaean classification for all extant and extinct foraminifera. Our view is that taxonomy should be based on optical recognition with the means of drawings, images, digital 3D-objects and text-descriptions. Then follows naming. Several or many illustrations are only useful if accessible via database-queries. We run such online-databases and queries which are continuously enlarged based on a growing number of contributors. With the multi-criteria search on a rising number of criteria we intend to build a powerful tool to answer individual questions.
The Foraminifera.eu-Project is non-commercial. We as staff and our contributors do not get a financial compensation as our work is based on naturalist enthusiasm. We will use donations of money or equipment only to cover costs for material, equipment and services bought from third parties.

Besides of the free-webpage and its features we offer:

to shoot images from sent in samples and make a taxonomical classification
sample exchange
different talks about foraminifera and their usage at a beginners
to intermediate level with many images and presentation of samples.
an exhibition with 12 DINA1 posters, foram-plastics and a variety of accompanying exhibits
a weekend workshop (in Hamburg in German or at your institution in English or German)
to work on mutual projects
to answer questions, some kind of contribution is expected though.
a booth at the Mineral fair in Hamburg each December

Owner and friendly dictator

Concept and Strategy

Core samples from drills in Northern Germany and in the North Sea

Sample cracking (phys., chem.),
washing and sieving

SEM-stub specimen positioning

Optical imaging incl. stacking

Backup Office and Mirror, Göttingen

Contributing Scientists

Wafa'a Mugahed Ahmed Al-Qadassi, University of Sana'a, Yemen
Mohammed Al-Wosabi, Earth & Environmental Sci. Dept. Faculty of Sci. - Sana'a' University, Yemen, Sana'a
Geise de Santana dos Anjos Zerfass, Petrobras, Brazil
Víctor Aramayo, Jorge Cardich, Dimitri Gutiérrez, Instituto del Mar del Perú, Callao, Lima, Perú
David C. Bossard, 19thcenturyscience.org, USA. David scanned the drawings from the "Report on the Foraminifera dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the Years 1873-1876 by Henry B. Brady"
Miroslav Bubik, Czech Geological Survey, Czech Republic
Tomas Cedhagen, Aarhus University, Department of Biological Sciences (providing a revision of Bradys Challenger drawings based upon Jones, Robert Wynn, 1994: The Challenger Foraminifera)
Claudia Cetean, NHML, consulting specialist on agglutinated foraminifera of the Cretaceous and Paleocene
David P. Cilia, biologist teacher and amateur malacologist, Malta
Stephen J. Culver, Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, NC, USA
Eiszeitmuseum Lütjenburg, Germany, Lütjenburg, Foram-Exhibition and samples, Gisela Lentz
Virginia Friedman, M.S. Paleontology UTDallas (2004)
Fabrizio Frontalini/Rodolfo Coccioni, DiSUAN, Laboratorio di Micropaleontologia Ambientale Facoltà di Scienze e Tecnologie, Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo"
Stephen J. Gallagher, School of Earth Sciences, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stephen J. Godfrey, Calvert Marine Museum, MD, USA
Bruno Granier, Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Univers, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France
Hans-Joachim Gregor, Palaeo Bavarian Geological Survey, Co-Editor of Documenta naturae, Germany, Bavaria
Onno Groß ex WoRMS, Hamburg DEEPWAVE - NGO for the protection of the oceans
Bruce Hayward, Geomarine Research, Auckland, New Zealand and mayor WORMS-Editor on Forams, helping with classification and providing monographs.
Johannes Kalbe, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, Universität Potsdam
Michael A. Kaminski, Earth Sciences Department King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and Grzybowski Foundation
Olga Koukousioura, Dept. of Historical Geology-Paleontology, Faculty of Geology & Geoenvironment, University of Athens
Hans-Jürgen Lierl, retired preparator former "Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie, Universität Hamburg" samples not yet processed
Uwe Marheinecke, geological consultant, ISO-certification, Germany, Hamburg (first instructor on microfossils)
Valeria I. Mikhalevich, Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg
Mikroskopische Gesellschaft Wien, Sample exchange
Renata Moura, Petrobras, Brazil
Arnold Mueller, Geologisch - Palaeontologische Sammlung, University of Leipzig
Jenö Nagy, Institutt for geofag, Oslo, Norway
John Nance, Paleontology Collections Manager, Calvert Marine Museum, Maryland, USA
Kai Nungesser, Hobby-Naturalist and author, Germany
Ekaterina Ovsepyan, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS, Moscow
Martina Pippèrr, Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften, Paläontologie und Geobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Irina Polovodova, University of Gothenburg Department of Earth Sciences (ex IFM Geomar)
Wilfried Rönnfeld, Institut für Geowissenschaften der Universität Tübingen
Eric M Sadorf, North Carolina Fossil Club and USGS, NC, USA
The Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll, UK
András Szabolcs Sóron, PhD-student at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Jessica W. Spear, U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg, Coastal and Marine Science Center
Morteza Taherpour, Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Islamic Azad University-Mashhad branch, Iran, Masshad
Hal Ray Tichenor, Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, NC, USA
Akira Tsujimoto, Department of Education, Shimane University, Shimane, Japan

Journals providing images

CELKA provides us with microslides

Adrian Berkenshire, Dorset, UK
Traute Bodien and Peter Apel, Germany, near Lübeck
David Clark, USA
Jan Deppermann, Germany, Hamburg
Dirk ?, Germany, Kassel
Axel Cordes and Dirk Dettmers, Germany
Cidalina Gomez, Azores, Portugal SEM images from her samples not yet online
Andreas Grant, Germany
Erwin Günther, Germany
Renate Hesemann, Germany, Köln
Manfred Kutscher, Kreidemuseum, Rügen, Germany, samples not yet processed
Peter Laging, GFG Lüneburg, Germany (sample from Cuba being processed)
Prof. Lenzenweger, Austria,
Bram Langeveld, The Netherlands
Stephan Lorenz, Germany, Hamburg
Laurene Mainguy, France
Family Meyer, Germany, Hamburg
Herb Miracle, USA, Kentucky, Louisville
Dr. Ralf Nötzel, Netphen-Eschenbach im Siegerland, Germany
Family Novak, Czech Republic, Prague
Martina Pleyer and Ingo, Germany
Stefan Polkowsky, Germany, Hamburg
Michael Popp, Louisvillefossils Blog, USA, Kentucky, Louisville
Kirsten Quoll, Australia, Outback
Mikkel Rødvig, Denmark
Dr. Michael Rötzer and Johann ?, Germany, near Regensburg
Eva, Stefan Rogge, Germany, Hamburg
Horst Schomburg, Germany
Andreas Simon, Germany, Hamburg
Jan Steger, Austria Sonnberg im Muehlviertel
Karl Stekiel, Germany
Brigitte Suhren and Jürgen Koch, Germany, Hamburg (mutual field trips, sharing of samples)
Karina und Nils Thiede, Sternberg, Germany
Yasemin I. Tulu, USA, Michigan (consulting palaeontologist)
Joachim Voß †, Germany
Georg Wawczyniak, Germany, optical images of plummercells
Erich Wiesner, Germany, Frankfurt
Renate Wilcke-Launer, Germany, Hamburg
Sabine Wilcken, Germany, Hamburg

Four collections with approx. 1200 unprocessed and processed samples,
75 plummercell slides with about 50.000 (75x~700) specimens .
Samples of dubious origin are used for beginner-training.

List of Publications about
the Foraminifera.eu Project

Hesemann, Michael 2009: a foraminiferan adventure in Deposits Magazine 17, 2009 PDF
Hesemann, Michael 2009: The Foraminifera.eu Internet Project: in Spec. Publ. 15 - "Seventh Micropalaeontological Workshop, MIKRO-2009, Sw. Katarzyna, Poland September 28-30, 2009. Abstracts and Excursion Guide Edited by: D. Perit and M.A. Kaminski. PDF
Hesemann, Michael 2010: Concept for a foraminiferal database in Abstracts Volume with Program, Forams 2010, International Symposium on Foraminifera, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, September 5-10, 2010 Germany PDF
Hesemann, Michael 2011: The Foraminifera.eu Project - status and perspectives in Bak, M. Kaminski, M.A. & Waskowska, A. (editors), 2011: Integrating Microfossil Records from the Oceans and Epicontinental Seas. Grzybowski Foundation Special Publication 17. PDF