Ecology of extant nummulitids and other larger benthic foraminifera: applications in palaeoenvironmental analysis

Larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) are important contributors to modern and ancient tropical, shallow-marine sediments. Over the past 30 years, a substantial body of literature has built up on the ecology of modern LBF, especially in terms of their environmentally sensitive depth distribution, reproductive strategy and morphology, and the symbiotic relationship between many larger foraminifera and photosynthetic algae. Over the same period, the extinct genus Nummulites, which is abundant in Eocene sediments of southern Europe, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, has increasingly been studied, principally because significant volumes of hydrocarbons have been discovered reservoired within nummulitic limestones offshore Tunisia and Libya. The modern ecological studies of LBF provide a powerful tool with which to develop palaeoecological models for fossil Nummulites (and other symbiont-bearing larger foraminifera in the rock record).