agglutinated fossil foraminifera buried deeply in sedimentary basins can be used to estimate thermal maturity which is a key factor for petroleum generation , and estimate old marine depths.
The different species of foraminifera are found in different environments, paleontologists can use the fossils to determine environments in the past. Foraminifera have been used to map past distributions of the tropics, locate ancient shorelines, and track global ocean temperature changes during the ice ages. To determine ancient environmental conditions using intricate shells of foraminifera.
In paleobathymetric studies of Cretaceous-Cenozoic strata, the ratio of planktonic to benthonic species increases with depth from shoreline across continental shelf and slope.