Vaginulina sp.

Bergh, Eugene W. & Compton, John S., 2022, Taxonomy of Middle Miocene foraminifera from the northern Namibian continental shelf, Zootaxa 5091 (1), pp. 1-55 : 20

Vaginulina sp.

Pl. 4, figs. 4–5

Description: The wall is calcareous and perforate. The test is elongate, compressed, uniserial and lenticular in cross-section. The sutures are slightly flush. The initial chambers are broad, narrowing in later chambers, with the terminal chamber broadened and more pronounced than the middle chambers. The aperture is pronounced, terminal and radiate.

Remarks: The relative abundance is generally low, forming trace components (<1%) in some of the samples of core 2670. The tests of Vaginulina sp. measure up to 0.25 mm in cross section and 1 mm in length.

This species resembles V. legumen , but has more basal spines (up to five). One central longer spine is preserved and four spines at each end are also located at the base of the test. The terminal chamber also appears slightly more inflated in relation to the earlier chambers and in relation to V. legumen .

Life strategy: Species of the genus Vaginulina are generally infaunal ( Jenkins, 1993).

Regional occurrence: This species occurs in middle Miocene sediments on the Namibian outer continental shelf, south of the Kunene River mouth (this study).