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The water environment allows the organism to be soft, watery and huge. To be watery and transparent is a successful way to avoid predation. [1] Sea water can prevent desiccation although it is much saltier than fresh water. For oceanic organism, not like terrestrial plants and animals, water is never a problem.
The calcification and dissolution of their shells causes changes both in the surface seawater carbonate chemistry, and in deep-water chemistry. [25] These organisms are excellent paleo-proxies as they record ambient water chemistry during shell formation and are well-preserved in the sedimentary fossil record.
Their shells are often tough mineralised forms that resist degradation, and can survive the death of the protist as a microfossil. Although protists are very small, they are ubiquitous. Their numbers are such that their shells play a huge part in the formation of ocean sediments, and in the global cycling of elements and nutrients.
The shells of marine species also often have more sculpture and more color, although this is by no means always the case. In the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the planet, there are far more species of colorful, large, shallow water shelled marine mollusks than there are in the temperate zones and the regions closer to the poles.
Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, plants, algae, fungi, protists, single-celled microorganisms and associated viruses living in the saline water of marine habitats, either the sea water of marginal seas and oceans, or the brackish water of coastal wetlands, lagoons ...
Coccolithophores and foraminifera also have hard protective shells, but the shells are made of calcium carbonate. These shells can help with buoyancy, allowing the organisms to float in the water column and move around more easily. In addition to protection and support, protist shells also serve scientists as a means of identification.
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Peanut flower. The peanut is an annual herbaceous plant growing 30 to 50 centimetres (12 to 20 in) tall. [9] As a legume, it belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae, also known as Leguminosae, and commonly known as the legume, bean, or pea family. [1]