Radiolaria

Extract

Radiolaria are marine holoplanktonic animal-like protists belonging to the Superclass Actinopodea of the Subphylum Sarcodina. When biologists speak of radiolarians they usually mean the subgroup Acantharia that are common in nearshore waters and are sometimes involved in plankton blooms. When paleontologists speak of radiolarians they usually mean the subgroups preserved in the fossil record; the Polycystina (or polycystine) encompassing Spumellaria and Nassellaria, which possess solid opaline skeletal structures, and the Phaeodaria (or phaeodarians), which possess hollow skeletal structures of an admixture of silica and organic matter.