Pondering forams

My master student has been in the lab for weeks now. There are many foraminifera you can see in that time! And that some point he had picked a sample, I wanted to show it to me. He had grouped the specimens by proposed species. And there was one rather abundant species of which he did not know what the species name was. And when I had a look I realised that neither did I! And this happened with another species in a different sample. So I retreated to my office and dived into my documentation.

Ideally, he would try to find this himself, but the problem is a bit that there are so incredibly many species. Where to start? I have lent him my Cushman book, but in spite of that being a classic it still has its limitations. And I have a complete Ellis and Messina Encyclopaedia, but that is very unwieldy. And where would he start to look? So I figured I could reach a nice compromise by coming up with a few proposed species per unidentified species, and then let him tell me which one he thought it might be, if any. With many years of experience, I know where to start. 

I actually quite enjoyed diving into literature, Google images, my encyclopedia, my memory, and the World Register of Marine Species. And I did manage a few proposed species! I printed out the descriptions from Ellis and Messina for my student. I wonder whether he comes to the same conclusions as I did. And I certainly have learned something! It is exciting to come across a species you haven't seen before. But I think I will see more of these. We are not done in this estuary…

Would we have this species in the assemblage?