Dear colleagues, who knows any information about Separation technique for foraminifera's isolating by heavy liquids?
Best wishes, Ilya
It is poossible using tetrachloromethane as a havy liquid. Foraminifers are in light fraction. Unfortunately tetrachloromethane is very toxic.
I'm usually use hand-picking's method under stereo microscope, but sometimes it has too little tests between too much of grains of the rock sample. It's complicating tests selection from rock sample and particulary from sandy rock samples. If it's possible for separation fraction of tests and fraction of grain of host rock sample, it very simplify process of selection and researching foraminifera's tests. Usually it's a filled tests of benthic foraminifera.
Although it has been a practice of using carbon tetra chloride for the separation of foraminiferal tests, there is every possibility of losing some important species due to filling. The best way is to pick them under microscope, it may be a bit cumbersome process.
If the tests are empty (thus filled with air), you can separate the calcareous test from quartz and glauconite by a flotation technique using a zinc chloride solution without major costs or hazards (Semensatto and Dias-Brito, 2007). Broken and infilled specimens will be lost during this process and will be present in the heavy fraction.
[Semensatto, D.L., Dias-Brito, D., 2007. Alternative saline solutions to float foraminiferal tests. J. Foraminifer. Res. 37 (3), 265–269.]
Lithium tungstate is also frequently used in mineral separation and might also be an alternative.
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