Abstract
Foraminifera are diverse and numerically important in most marine ecosystems and have been since the early Paleozoic. Their ecology and distribution have been studied extensively across the globe (Murray, 1991). They are also important in the geologic record, being one of the best represented fossil organisms since the Cambrian (Culver, 1991; Lipps, 1992). Foraminifera are widely used in ecologic, paleobiologic, paleoceanographic, and paleoclimatic analyses. Yet we know little about their trophic relationships, a fundamental ecologic feature of any group of organisms.
It has been a matter of almost momentary occurrence to see a tiny Copepod blunder against the fully extended pseudopodia of a robust Miliolid and instantaneously fall to the bottom of the tank apparently dead. The Copepod is, however, only stunned, or by some unidentified means terrified, for at the end of, at the most, two minutes, it seems to stretch itself and dart off once more upon its apparently gay and irresponsible career. Edward Heron-Allen (1915, p. 234–235)
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Culver, S.J., Lipps, J.H. (2003). Predation on and by Foraminifera. In: Kelley, P.H., Kowalewski, M., Hansen, T.A. (eds) Predator—Prey Interactions in the Fossil Record. Topics in Geobiology, vol 20. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0161-9_2
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