noun
- a microscopic marine organism with a shell, commonly used in paleontology and geology to study ancient environments
Usage: technical; usually used in plural form 'forams'; short for foraminifer
Examples
- Scientists studied foram shells to understand the climate of the ancient ocean.
- The sediment sample contained thousands of tiny forams from the Cretaceous period.
- Forams are important indicators of water temperature and salinity in paleoceanography.
- The fossil record shows how foram populations changed over millions of years.