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Radiolarians

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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Definition

Radiolaria are single-celled marine eukaryotes, also some colonial forms, existing from the Cambrian (ca. 530 Ma) to recent. Thus, radiolarians are one of the longest ranging groups of fossil microorganisms. The founders of radiolarian taxonomy were two German scientists, C.G. Ehrenberg (1795–1876) and E. Haeckel (1834–1919). Ehrenberg described more than 70 genera and 500 species, while Haeckel contributed more than 700 genera and 4,000 species. Haeckel’s (1887) system is the basis of some modern taxonomic systems. One proposed by Riedel (1967) is the most commonly used: kingdom Protista, phylum Sarcomastigophora, subphylum Sarcodina, class Actinopoda, subclass Radiolaria, superorder Polycystina, and orders Spumellaria (SiO2), Nassellaria (SiO2), and Phaeodaria (SiO2 + organic compound). In this scheme, Acantharia (SrSO4) and Heliozoa (SiO2) also are assigned to the class Actinopoda but in separate subclasses. This system is mainly based on skeletal material and general...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Museum of Natural History, University of Oslo, 1172, NO-0318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway

    Kjell R. Bjørklund

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  1. Kjell R. Bjørklund
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Correspondence to Kjell R. Bjørklund .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Institute of Earth Science, KÖPPEN-Laboratory, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    JÖrn Thiede

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Bjørklund, K.R. (2016). Radiolarians. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1_91

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