Schizamminidae Nørvang, 1961

Maldonado, Manuel, López-Acosta, María, Sitjà, Cèlia, Aguilar, Ricardo, García, Silvia & Vacelet, Jean, 2013, A giant foraminifer that converges to the feeding strategy of carnivorous sponges: Spiculosiphon oceana sp. nov. (Foraminifera, Astrorhizida), Zootaxa 3669 (4), pp. 571-584 : 572

Family Schizamminidae Nørvang, 1961

The current high-rank classification of Foraminifera has not yet caught up with recent molecular and morphological phylogenies and many uncertainties remain. Most molecular phylogenies depict the Foraminifera as a monophyletic subclade within the more inclusive clade Chromista (as defined by Cavalier-Smith, 2010). However, within the Foraminifera, the Astrohrizida has been shown to be a polyphyletic taxon. “Astrorhizids” are dispersed throughout a paraphyletic array of single-chambered foraminiferans that were traditionally grouped in the order Allogromiida (Habura et al. 2008; Lecroq et al. 2011; Loeblich & Tappan 1988; Pawlowski et al. 2003; Sen Gupta 2002; Tsuchiya et al. 2013). In the absence of an updated classification scheme that integrates recent molecular and morphological views, we have decided not to leave the material described in this study without a high-rank taxonomic allocation and tentatively followed the classification scheme currently provided at the World Modern Foraminifera database "http://www.marinespecies.org/ foraminifera", where the schizamminids consist of 3 valid, extant genera: Jullienella Schlumberger, 1890 , Schizammina Heron-Allen & Earland, 1929 , and Spiculosiphon Christiansen, 1964 . Collectively, the family is small, with only 11 known species to date, 3 of which belong to Jullinella, 6 to Schizammina , and 2 to Spiculosiphon (if considering the new species described herein). We are, however, aware that the current concepts of “ Astrorhizida ” and “ Schizamminidae ” can be profoundly altered in the coming years.