noun
- Plural of foram; microscopic marine organisms with shells, commonly used in paleontology and geology to study ancient environments.
Usage: informal shortening of 'foraminifera'; technical/scientific context; plural form
Examples
- Geologists studied the forams in the sediment layers to determine the age of the rock.
- The fossil record contains abundant forams that help us understand past ocean conditions.
- Forams are single-celled organisms that build intricate calcium carbonate shells.
- Scientists extracted forams from the core sample to analyze climate change over millennia.