noun
definition
Any of many marine amoeboid protozoa, of subclass Radiolaria, having filamentous pseudopodia; they have intricate silica skeletons.
Examples of radiolarian in a Sentence
At Esperanza and other places in the Santa Clara province, bituminous plant-bearing beds occur beneath the Tertiary limestones, and at Baracoa a Radiolarian earth occupies a similar position.
The silica, in the form of diatom or radiolarian skeletons, is eventually deposited on the ocean floor after the death of the organisms. Most of the fine colloidal clay is, however, deposited as river-sludges when the fresh water carrying it mixes with denser sea-water.
To this inconceivably slowly-growing deposit of inorganic material over the ocean floor there is added an overwhelmingly more rapid contribution of the remains of calcareous and siliceous planktonic and benthonic organisms, which tend to bury the slower accumulating material under a blanket of globigerina, pteropod, diatom or radiolarian ooze.
Thus red clay and radiolarian ooze are distinguished as abyssal deposits in contradistinction to the epilophic calcareous oozes.
Radiolarian ooze was recognized as a distinct deposit and named by Sir ' John Murray on the " Challenger " expedition, but it may be viewed as red clay with an exceptionally large proportion of siliceous organic remains, especially those of the radiolarians which form part of the pelagic plankton.
If there were strong currents at the bottom of the ocean the uniform accumulation of the deposit of minute shells of globigerina and radiolarian ooze would be impossible, the rises and ridges would necessarily be swept clear of them, and the fact that this is not the case shows that from whatever cause the waters of the depths are set in motion, that motion must be of the most deliberate and gentlest kind.
In the Kapoewas district radiolarian cherts supposed to be of Jurassic age are met with.
In the northern portion of the square, north and east of Wharton deep, the red clay is replaced over a large tract by Radiolarian ooze.
Some cherts contain tests of radiolaria, and correspond fairly closely to the siliceous radiolarian oozes which are gathering at the present day at the bottom of some of the deepest parts of the oceans.
These are overlaid by conglomerates, limestones and clay slates of very doubtful age, the most interesting being a radiolarian clay which occurs on the south side of the Matinang Mountains, at the north end of Lake Posso, &c.; it may correspond with the radiolarian cherts of Borneo.
However, in comparison to Group 4, radiolarian chert is virtually absent.
The following animation example documents the process of focusing to the inner sphere of a radiolarian shell.
The first thing is to purchase a small vial of cleaned shells from radiolarian ooze.