So, the idea here is that we can use the commenting tools to discuss anything about the site or coccolithophores. If discussions get long we can split the page into different topics. If no-one says anything we may quietly remove the page.
However, we will read every comment posted here so feel free to use this for:
Bug reports and complaints about the site
Suggestions of things we might do with the site
Discussing preparation methods, microscopy techniques, etc.
Publicising meetings or vacancies
Comments on how you use the site
How to add comments
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will find a heading "Add Comment" and a form to fill in. To reply to a comment click the curvedarrow symbol below and to the right of it. The same layout is there on every taxon page. For a bit more advice you can see the guidelines.
Comments (55)
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Matthew Day
(Chinnor, UK)
Hi,
I am a sculpture and I have been commissioned by Chinnor Parish Council to make a sculpture that celebrates Chinnor Quarry (South Oxfordshire, UK) which, as I am sure you know, is a large chalk and marl quarry. I have been researching the geology of the site and I am amazed at what I have learned regarding coccoliths and the nature of chalk formation. I am writing to ask if anyone can help with advising on 3D computer models of coccoliths and also further information on how they from the plates and why they are the shape and size they are. I am considering making a number of large coccoliths and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Matt.
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi Matt
That is a fascinating sounding project and I will be glad to help. It is probably easiest if you email me directly - jeremy.young@ucl.ac.uk
Jeremy
Andy Bowman
Hello Jeremy,
You are exactly right. The issue is related to the browser used on my Windows-based laptop. The machine uses Microsoft Edge. It has handled Nannotax fine until very recently, so there must have been an update. My Mac laptop (using a different browser) continues to handle Nannotax perfectly well. Anyway, the issue is definitely browser-related.
Thanks again for your help.
-Andy
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi Andy
I have just tried the site on a windows computer with Microsoft Edge and it still works ok. I suspect the problem may be something to do with caching - I have recently changed the way some addresses are handled. So, you could try emptying caches/ deleting browsing history.
Jeremy
Andy Bowman
Hello,
FYI - The links to the detailed species information (e.g. individual species pages) appears to be broken, as of Dec. 30, 2022.
Happy New Year.
Regards,
Andy
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi Andy
Thanks for reporting that. I think what you encountered was a temporary problem while I was doing some work on the system, and it should be Ok now.
Jeremy
Andy Bowman
Hi Jeremy,
Thank you for the information. I'm still having issues with accessing the pages for individual species. If it's working on your end, then the issue is likely on my end.
Thanks again.
Andy
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi Andy
I cant't see any problem from my end but it may be an incompatiblity related to your set-up. Have you tested with a different browser or on another computer? If you do find there is a persisitent problem with a specific set-up do let me know as usually there are solutions possible from the developer end. Alterntively if it is being consistently slow in your location then it would be useful to know that as well
Jeremy
Bruno R.C. Granier
(Brest - Brittany, France)
Bonjour ;)
I found your site is GREAT! Very well organized and therefore very useful, especially because I was very recently editing a manuscript on nannofossils for Carnets Geol. https://doi.org/10.2110/carnets.2022.2217
I have few suggestions/comments.
1) For instance, in your reference list, it happens that papers by a single author follow multiauthored papers by the same first author (they should precede them)
2) You consider that nobiliary particles are part of the author's family name. There should not: van Hinte should be cited as Hinte and listed in the reference under the letter H
(but another Van Hinte with a first capital letter should be listed under the letter V; de Jong as Jong, under J, not under D; ... d'Orbigny as Orbigny, under O, not under D.
All best wishes,
Brnuo Granier
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Bonjour Bruno
Thank you for the appreciation and for the link to the paper - Bernard Lambert's work is always interesting to see and I will certainly add that to the bibliography. I had not really noticed the reference sorting problem but it was easy to fix, thank you for pointing it out. Honorific prefixies are more problematic since opinions vary on how to handle them, but maybe it is time to go back and tidy them up.
cheers
Jeremy
Keith Edkins
(Cambridge, UK)
The Farinacci catalogue lists 3 species under the genus Pharus Wind & Wise. As I understand it, this genus falls within the informal concept of "algae", and its nomenclature is therefore covered by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, current edition 2018. This means that the genus name Pharus Wind & Wise is illegitimate, as it is a later homonym of Pharus P.Browne, a genus of neotropical grasses, name published in 1756. I am trying to get this message to somebody active in nannofossil research so that a valid replacement name can be published.
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Dear Keith Edkins
Thank you for your comment. Pharus Wind & Wise 1977 is indeed an alga and so a junior homonym of Pharus Browne 1756. The taxonomy of this group of Late Cretaceous holococcoliths is problematic but there is no other obvious genus for the species so a new name shoudl be propesed. I believe you have been in touch with Dr Jackie Lees and she would be an ideal person to collaborate on this.
thank you
Jeremy
Maurice Kevin Edward Cooper
(Woking, UK)
Hi Jeremy
Can you give me the correct reference for this site for inclusion in publication. I have had two papers to review which give completely contrasting refences for the sight e.g. different years etc
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi Kevin - I have put some advice on citations on a page linked from the menu at the top - "About Nannotax/API citation and copyright. BUT there's a complication that the correct format for citing websites is set by the journal and will differ between journals.
Jeremy
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi Mahani
Lovely to hear from you, it is always nice to know the website is being used in different ways and you are very welcome to share images from it. If you have any suggestions for how we can make it more useful please do let us know.
all the best
Jeremy
Mahani Mohamed
(Kuala Lumpur Malaysia)
Hi Jeremy
I m Mahani. I hope that you still remember me. I m now no more with Petronas. I am trying to educate the young biostratigrapher in nanno and foram. I share your fossil photos in my Instagram.
Vladimir Musatov
(Saratov, Russia)
Hi Jeremy.
There is a very important question - why the stratigraphic scale of the Paleogene on the Nannotax3 site does not correspond to the stratigraphic scale in the GTS-2020 book? What to take as a basis?
Thanks,
Vladimir
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi Vladimir
Good question - I do indeed need to update the site to use GTS2020. Doing so is a bit of a project though, and I have just not found the time to do it yet. For the most prt though the difference between GTS2020 and 2012 are small in our time interval - the big changes are in the Palaeozoic. Thank you for reminding me though, it is something Ineed to do.
all the best
Jeremy
Mark
(CA, US)
Superb, very nice information
Raditya
Hi, are the photos of the nannofossil species on this site raw (pure from a microscope) or have a lot of noise (already processed)?
Thank you in advance.
Jeremy Young
(London, UK)
Hi the images come from many different sources and were taken on different types of microcope. ..but nannofossils are small (only a few microns) so they are difficult to image even with the best equipment.
Tatiana Tsagaraki
(Bergen, Norway)
Hello, Just been through the pictures on the webpage but can't find something that gets me closer to figuring out what this is. Any ideas?
Many thanks!
Jeremy Young
(Tonbridge, UK)
Tatiana
That is a fairly well known undescribed Syracosphaera species - it is on here as
Syracosphaera sp. A.
Those are lovely images, it is ok if I post them on the relevant page. I'll also put you in touch via email with someone who else who has some images and is describing the species.
Jeremy
Tatiana Tsagaraki
(Bergen, Norway)
Thank you, I missed those, sorry! It's fine to post the pictures yes, just for reference this sample was from 50m depth and taken between Madeira and the Gibraltar straights in May 2019
Jeremy Young
(Tonbridge, UK)
Thank you Tatiana
that is much appreciated - and i will look forward to see more results of your work.
Jeremy
Karine Leblanc
(Marseille, France)
dear all,
I have an identification quizz for you all. I found this in the subtropical Pacific Ocean (near Tonga volcano ridge) in a sediment trap moored at -170 m. It looks like calcite and was found in a sample with a large amount of coccolithophores (at least 25 different species). I was wondering whether this perfect ice cream cone could be a coccolith or something that you already stumbled upon ? Thanks a lot for your help ! Cheers.
That is definitely not a coccolith but it certainly is nice. I agree it looks calcareous and I suspect it might be the proloculus (first chamber) of a very small foram - it has both a terminal aperture and pores on the shell. There are some microfossil groups on facebok which might help with an identification.
Jeremy
Karine Leblanc
(Marseille, France)
Thanks for your response! I'll try to investigate on the foram side...Cheers
Roque Aguado
(Linares, Spain)
Hi,
I don't know if this was a mistake. I think the fourth (otherwise of excellent quality) picture placed under Hayesites irregularis (named KCooper-Rucinolithus irregularis.jpg) in the nannotax website probably is more compatible with the description of Hayesites albiensis. The specimen appering in this picture has a marked stellate and regular outline having only six long rays.
Cheers,
R. Aguado.
Jeremy Young
(Tonbridge, UK)
Hi Roque,
yes, you are right, in terms of the species concepts outlined here this specimen clearly ought to be in albiensis, I have transferred the image.
thanks Jeremy
NB If you are commenting on an image it is easiest if you add the comment on the bottom of the taxon page the image is on.
Ian
(Coventry, UK)
Hi
We're looking at samples of freshwater collected for us by school groups, we're actually looking for viruses under TEM but we as hard pellet ( 200K RCF ) after a 6 micron filter we get everything and we're pulling out a lot of what look like coccoliths. I can't find much information on fresh water species but we have structures resembling Palusphaera and others. Are there any resources about fresh water species?
cheers
Ian
Jeremy Young
(Tonbridge, UK)
Ian
Thanks for posting that image. Those are not coccoliths but non-calcified scales. Actually quite a few different protists use scales to form composite exoskeletons and these are variously formed of resistant organics, silica or calcite (coccoliths). I am not an expert on these groups but I think your images are of Paraphysomonas and if you do a google search on that it should get results. i would like to have more images of these sort of things in the non-coco section, so if you could send me some images that would be appreciated.
cheers Jeremy
Ian
(coventry, UK)
thanks! That's really useful information. I'll sort some images out for you - might take a while as we have around a thousand frames to go through. We also have map refs and some basic water quality info for each collection site. Drop me an email and I'll send them as zipped download links. The actual project is here - http://www.warwick.ac.uk/virushunters
Comments
(55)
Hi,
I am a sculpture and I have been commissioned by Chinnor Parish Council to make a sculpture that celebrates Chinnor Quarry (South Oxfordshire, UK) which, as I am sure you know, is a large chalk and marl quarry. I have been researching the geology of the site and I am amazed at what I have learned regarding coccoliths and the nature of chalk formation. I am writing to ask if anyone can help with advising on 3D computer models of coccoliths and also further information on how they from the plates and why they are the shape and size they are. I am considering making a number of large coccoliths and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Matt.
Hi Matt
That is a fascinating sounding project and I will be glad to help. It is probably easiest if you email me directly - jeremy.young@ucl.ac.uk
Jeremy
Hello Jeremy,
You are exactly right. The issue is related to the browser used on my Windows-based laptop. The machine uses Microsoft Edge. It has handled Nannotax fine until very recently, so there must have been an update. My Mac laptop (using a different browser) continues to handle Nannotax perfectly well. Anyway, the issue is definitely browser-related.
Thanks again for your help.
-Andy
Hi Andy
I have just tried the site on a windows computer with Microsoft Edge and it still works ok. I suspect the problem may be something to do with caching - I have recently changed the way some addresses are handled. So, you could try emptying caches/ deleting browsing history.
Jeremy
Hello,
FYI - The links to the detailed species information (e.g. individual species pages) appears to be broken, as of Dec. 30, 2022.
Happy New Year.
Regards,
Andy
Hi Andy
Thanks for reporting that. I think what you encountered was a temporary problem while I was doing some work on the system, and it should be Ok now.
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
Thank you for the information. I'm still having issues with accessing the pages for individual species. If it's working on your end, then the issue is likely on my end.
Thanks again.
Andy
Hi Andy
I cant't see any problem from my end but it may be an incompatiblity related to your set-up. Have you tested with a different browser or on another computer? If you do find there is a persisitent problem with a specific set-up do let me know as usually there are solutions possible from the developer end. Alterntively if it is being consistently slow in your location then it would be useful to know that as well
Jeremy
Bonjour ;)
I found your site is GREAT! Very well organized and therefore very useful, especially because I was very recently editing a manuscript on nannofossils for Carnets Geol. https://doi.org/10.2110/carnets.2022.2217
I have few suggestions/comments.
1) For instance, in your reference list, it happens that papers by a single author follow multiauthored papers by the same first author (they should precede them)
2) You consider that nobiliary particles are part of the author's family name. There should not: van Hinte should be cited as Hinte and listed in the reference under the letter H
(but another Van Hinte with a first capital letter should be listed under the letter V; de Jong as Jong, under J, not under D; ... d'Orbigny as Orbigny, under O, not under D.
All best wishes,
Brnuo Granier
Bonjour Bruno
Thank you for the appreciation and for the link to the paper - Bernard Lambert's work is always interesting to see and I will certainly add that to the bibliography. I had not really noticed the reference sorting problem but it was easy to fix, thank you for pointing it out. Honorific prefixies are more problematic since opinions vary on how to handle them, but maybe it is time to go back and tidy them up.
cheers
Jeremy
The Farinacci catalogue lists 3 species under the genus Pharus Wind & Wise. As I understand it, this genus falls within the informal concept of "algae", and its nomenclature is therefore covered by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, current edition 2018. This means that the genus name Pharus Wind & Wise is illegitimate, as it is a later homonym of Pharus P.Browne, a genus of neotropical grasses, name published in 1756. I am trying to get this message to somebody active in nannofossil research so that a valid replacement name can be published.
Dear Keith Edkins
Thank you for your comment. Pharus Wind & Wise 1977 is indeed an alga and so a junior homonym of Pharus Browne 1756. The taxonomy of this group of Late Cretaceous holococcoliths is problematic but there is no other obvious genus for the species so a new name shoudl be propesed. I believe you have been in touch with Dr Jackie Lees and she would be an ideal person to collaborate on this.
thank you
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy
Can you give me the correct reference for this site for inclusion in publication. I have had two papers to review which give completely contrasting refences for the sight e.g. different years etc
Hi Kevin - I have put some advice on citations on a page linked from the menu at the top - "About Nannotax/API citation and copyright. BUT there's a complication that the correct format for citing websites is set by the journal and will differ between journals.
Jeremy
Hi Mahani
Lovely to hear from you, it is always nice to know the website is being used in different ways and you are very welcome to share images from it. If you have any suggestions for how we can make it more useful please do let us know.
all the best
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy
I m Mahani. I hope that you still remember me. I m now no more with Petronas. I am trying to educate the young biostratigrapher in nanno and foram. I share your fossil photos in my Instagram.
Hi Jeremy.
There is a very important question - why the stratigraphic scale of the Paleogene on the Nannotax3 site does not correspond to the stratigraphic scale in the GTS-2020 book? What to take as a basis?
Thanks,
Vladimir
Hi Vladimir
Good question - I do indeed need to update the site to use GTS2020. Doing so is a bit of a project though, and I have just not found the time to do it yet. For the most prt though the difference between GTS2020 and 2012 are small in our time interval - the big changes are in the Palaeozoic. Thank you for reminding me though, it is something Ineed to do.
all the best
Jeremy
Superb, very nice information
Hi, are the photos of the nannofossil species on this site raw (pure from a microscope) or have a lot of noise (already processed)?
Thank you in advance.
Hi the images come from many different sources and were taken on different types of microcope. ..but nannofossils are small (only a few microns) so they are difficult to image even with the best equipment.
Hello, Just been through the pictures on the webpage but can't find something that gets me closer to figuring out what this is. Any ideas?
Many thanks!
Tatiana
That is a fairly well known undescribed Syracosphaera species - it is on here as
Syracosphaera sp. A.
Those are lovely images, it is ok if I post them on the relevant page. I'll also put you in touch via email with someone who else who has some images and is describing the species.
Jeremy
Thank you, I missed those, sorry! It's fine to post the pictures yes, just for reference this sample was from 50m depth and taken between Madeira and the Gibraltar straights in May 2019
Thank you Tatiana
that is much appreciated - and i will look forward to see more results of your work.
Jeremy
dear all,
I have an identification quizz for you all. I found this in the subtropical Pacific Ocean (near Tonga volcano ridge) in a sediment trap moored at -170 m. It looks like calcite and was found in a sample with a large amount of coccolithophores (at least 25 different species). I was wondering whether this perfect ice cream cone could be a coccolith or something that you already stumbled upon ? Thanks a lot for your help ! Cheers.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GdlWxigAOg_paAHpNA-dkNWlkJQ16Acj/view?usp=sharing
Karine
That is definitely not a coccolith but it certainly is nice. I agree it looks calcareous and I suspect it might be the proloculus (first chamber) of a very small foram - it has both a terminal aperture and pores on the shell. There are some microfossil groups on facebok which might help with an identification.
Jeremy
Thanks for your response! I'll try to investigate on the foram side...Cheers
Hi,
I don't know if this was a mistake. I think the fourth (otherwise of excellent quality) picture placed under Hayesites irregularis (named KCooper-Rucinolithus irregularis.jpg) in the nannotax website probably is more compatible with the description of Hayesites albiensis. The specimen appering in this picture has a marked stellate and regular outline having only six long rays.
Cheers,
R. Aguado.
Hi Roque,
yes, you are right, in terms of the species concepts outlined here this specimen clearly ought to be in albiensis, I have transferred the image.
thanks Jeremy
NB If you are commenting on an image it is easiest if you add the comment on the bottom of the taxon page the image is on.
Hi
We're looking at samples of freshwater collected for us by school groups, we're actually looking for viruses under TEM but we as hard pellet ( 200K RCF ) after a 6 micron filter we get everything and we're pulling out a lot of what look like coccoliths. I can't find much information on fresh water species but we have structures resembling Palusphaera and others. Are there any resources about fresh water species?
cheers
Ian
Ian
Thanks for posting that image. Those are not coccoliths but non-calcified scales. Actually quite a few different protists use scales to form composite exoskeletons and these are variously formed of resistant organics, silica or calcite (coccoliths). I am not an expert on these groups but I think your images are of Paraphysomonas and if you do a google search on that it should get results. i would like to have more images of these sort of things in the non-coco section, so if you could send me some images that would be appreciated.
cheers Jeremy
thanks! That's really useful information. I'll sort some images out for you - might take a while as we have around a thousand frames to go through. We also have map refs and some basic water quality info for each collection site. Drop me an email and I'll send them as zipped download links. The actual project is here - http://www.warwick.ac.uk/virushunters
cheers
Ian