1. Even the limestone in the Egyptian pyramids contains foram remains, the ancient historian Herodotus noted.

2. The foram record includes a global warming event that provides a warning for our own times.

3. Looking like a puffy white star studded with little pearls, this is the shell of an amoeboid protist called a foraminifera, or foram.

4. Taketomi Island, Okinawa, JapanLooking like a puffy white star studded with little pearls, this is the shell of an amoeboid protist called a foraminifera, or foram.

5. The study, published in the September issue of the Journal of the Geological Society, found that increasing CO2 levels caused foram diversity to fall from 24 species to only 4.