FORAMINIFERA. Marine single-celled animals (Proto zoa) which have their protoplasm contained in a calcareous shell, which is usually perforated by numerous pores, through which issue delicate protoplasmic processes (so-called rhizopods), which serve for catching food and for locomotion. They are frequently present in such numbers that their shells form a considerable pro portion of the ooze which covers the floor of the ocean. The best known of these is Globigerina (q.v.). Chalk rocks were formed in seas of past geological epochs almost entirely of the shells of Foraminifera. See PROTOZOA.