Articles | Volume 37, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/jm-37-295-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/jm-37-295-2018
Research article
 | 
08 Feb 2018
Research article |  | 08 Feb 2018

On a grain of sand – a microhabitat for the opportunistic agglutinated foraminifera Hemisphaerammina apta n. sp., from the early Eocene Arctic Ocean

David H. McNeil and Lisa A. Neville

Cited articles

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Short summary
Approximately 50 million years ago, global CO2 levels were abnormally high and the arctic climate was comparable to today’s southern USA. Our research analysed the geological and ecological conditions of this warm Arctic with a focus on one micro-organism that survived by being attached to fine grains of sand in a storm-prone Arctic Ocean. It emerged after CO2-caused mass extinction and colonized the Arctic when CO2 levels averaged 500 ppm. Today's CO2 levels are moving toward that level.