Foraminifera: genetics, morphology, simulation, evolution 

To see a model of Foraminifera, first download and install Framsticks.

Genotype-to-phenotype encoding

The model is based on the concept described in Tyszka, J. 2006, 03/31: Morphospace of foraminiferal shells: results from the moving reference model. Lethaia, Vol. 39, pp. 1-12. Oslo. ISSN 0024-1164.

  1. In the Artificial Life applications, both mobile and desktop, you can use a basic Foraminifera genotype as a seed (go to the "Genetic Lab" to get the "fF" specimen) and proceed with simulation and evolution. You can also adjust values of individual genes of the Foraminifera model in the Genetic Lab editing room - click a gene and use slider.
  2. To see Foraminifera for a specific genotype in Framsticks Theater, using command-line, enter
    theater -g /*F*/13,0.1,0.1,0.1,1.1,1.1,1.1,0.54,2.75,0

    You can also run the Theater application without any arguments and select the "biomorph" show or the "mutation" show. Then you can select the "F" encoding from the menu and watch the show with Foraminifera as the actors.

  3. In Framsticks GUI, you can use "F"-format genotypes to design, simulate and evolve Foraminifera. Load the foraminifera.gen file to see a few examples.

See a short presentation from April 2014 workshop on modeling Foraminifera in Framsticks.

Sources for this genetic encoding (for developers) are available here.



Modeling and simulating foraminifera morphology and genetics.

This video can be downloaded for off-line presentation.


A short animation demonstrating dying planktonic Foraminifera raining down on the sea floor.

Video for off-line use: 30 MB.


Simulation of benthic foraminifera. Details of the multi-agent model of their response to annual variability of feeding fluxes are described here.





Benthic ecosystem

To see this Foraminifera simulation,

  • In Framsticks Theater: select "foraminifera" from the list of shows.
  • In Artificial Life app: go to "Demos" and then select "foraminifera" from the list of shows.
  • In Framsticks GUI: select the "foraminifera" experiment definition, initialize it, and run the simulation.

See a presentation from June 2015 conferences on modeling Foraminifera in Framsticks.

Sources of this experiment (for developers) are available here.