Forams - Blog Posts

These microscopic beauties are foraminifera—single-celled organisms that live in the ocean. Since they make their shell using oxygen from the water, as ocean temperatures fluctuate through time and change the type of oxygen in the water the shells’ structure also changes.  Paleontologists like the Smithsonian’s very own Brian Huber can use fossil foraminifera to track changes in Earth’s climate from over 540 million years ago.