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TESTACEANS are single-celled amoebae that live in self made shells of organic material, often supplied with silica plates or, especially in soil and moss dwelling forms, with particles from the surroundings. The latter, looking much like debris, are not easily recognized as animals. There are a lot of species in freshwater and soil, many of them with rather specific habitat preferences. Their size is usually between 0.05 and 0.5 mm. As their shells are often rather resistant they are preserved in geological sediments and are used in stratigraphy and palaeo-ecology. |
| some links: | http://www.geo.arizona.edu/palynology/ppamoeba.html |