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Now, an international group of researchers have discovered a previously unknown species of large foraminifer, shedding new light on the ecological evolution and biodiversity of coral reefs in the Ryukyu Islands.

The researchers, from Spain and Italy, looked at ratios of magnesium to calcite from planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber, a fossilized amoeba, in the Sicily Channel, to come up with their conclusions.

As many as half of all speceis of benthic foraminifers also went extinct, which may mean that organisms higher up on the marine chain were affected by acidification as well.

At one moment he has to deal with the bones of some large mammal scattered through a deposit of superficial gravel, at another time with the minute foraminifers and ostracods of an upraised sea-bottom.

Certain small foraminifers, for example, met with in some of the oldest formations, do not seem to differ from species which are still living.