XIX. — Foraminifera of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition

Abstract

The fauna of the Polar regions is of deep interest to zoologists generally, that of the Antarctic specially so, and in this the Rhizopodist can justly claim his share.Since the return of the Challenger Expedition in 1876, the later British expeditions to this area, with the exception of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, did but little in the way of sounding and trawling in the deeper waters of the Antarctic. Although much additional work has been carried out, and many new and rare species of the higher forms of marine life from this region have been brought to light, comparatively little has been added to the Rhizopod fauna since the results of the Challenger Expedition were published. The following pages on the Foraminifera are due to the energy and enthusiasm of Dr W. S. Bruce, F.R.S.E., and his colleagues. The genera and species here enumerated and described have been obtained from samples of deposits sent to me at intervals by Dr Bruce and Dr J. H. Harvey Pirie, collected by them, during the S.Y. Scotia Expedition in 1903-4, chiefly from the area of the Weddell Sea, where the ocean floor is covered with terrigenous deposits of Blue Mud, or (as Dr Pirie calls them) Glacial Muds and Clays.