They are beautiful, they are everywhere, and they are absurdly unknown: you are entirely forgiven if you’ve never heard of foraminifera before. But they play a huge role in the functioning of marine ecosystems, and they are so ubiquitous that there are entire beaches made of their tiny shells—which are actually huge if you consider that “forams” are single-celled organisms. A typical foram is the size of a grain of sand; up to 5 mm (0.2 inches) big.
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