Foraminifera are microscopic, single celled organisms that live in the sea. They have hard ‘shells’, which are the bits that archaeologists find in sediments. There are thought to be 4,000 different living types of Foraminifera!

Ostracods are much bigger – typically about 1mm with hard shells. They are sometimes called ‘seed shrimps’. There are even more types of Ostracoda (about 50 thousand). Some of them live in fresh water and others in salt water.

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0 - 0.8m       0.8m to 1.5m   High saltmarsh forams An example of a Foram 1.5m to 2.5m   Estuarine and lagoonal forams An example of a tidal creek Ostracod 2.5m to 3.5m       3.5m to 5.5m   Foraminifera typical of lower saltmarsh and tidal flats   5.5m       5.6m   Peat so no ostracods   5.8m   Estuarine foraminifera There is an interesting anomaly here in that there are marine Forams underneath terrestial peat which is dated to 8,600 years ago. Most people think that the sea should have been 40 kilometers away to the soulth and sea level should have been 30m below this point. Was there an error in the date for the peat (unlikely)? Was there an marine incursion for a few hundred years up deeply incised valleys? Or was there a Tsunami!!? We do not know   5.8m to 7m   Ostracods found in springs or slow streams