Foraminifera (or foram for short) means “hole bearers” in Latin. Foram are part of the ameboid protist class in the kingdom protista, meaning they’re single-celled organisms that are not plant, animal or fungi.  100 million years ago these tiny critters populated in the ancient oceans. Fifty thousand species scoured the sea floors and floated above the underwater plains.

Honors graduate and Torgeson Bridge fellow Laura Cruz-Gomez investigates foram fossils from the age of the dinosaurs. This was the Creteacous period — when parts of Texas were under a shallow sea. While one fifth of foram species still exist, there’s still more to learn about how the ancient foram lived. Continue reading