David,

Coccolths are extremely small, requiring a good microscope to see.  Forams, although making up only a small percentage of chalk, are relatively obvious with a hand lens, so have traditionally been assumed to make up the chalk.  Coccoliths are symmetric calcareous plates that coat extremely small single celled floating algae.  Forams are amoeba-like but with a coiled shell (at least in the planktonic types found in chalks.)  Note that they lack an opening (except tiny holes all over) so will not be confused with tiny snail shells.
Allen Aigen
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-- David Kirsh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
My dad told me when I was a kid that the White Cliffs of Dover were foramifera. Is that another name for coccolithophores?

David Kirsh

> huge blooms of calcareous algae (coccolithophores) made the famous chalk cliffs.

Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit. --
Edward R. Murrow

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