However, our knowledge of the biodiversity patterns of benthic and planktonic Foraminifera is still far from complete. The general difficulties of the foraminiferal species concept, the taxonomic uncertainties due to frequent synonyms, the present lack of knowledge of the diversity of soft-walled Foraminifera (e.g. Allogromiina) especially in the deep-sea, and the unknown species richness of foraminiferal communities in many geographic regions (e.g., along the southern Mediterranean Sea and North-African coast) have do be kept in mind when looking at this checklist. The catalogue awaits further inputs, and revision and should be seen as a baseline for future biodiversity studies.The catalogue of Foraminifera benefited greatly from databases and comments of Thomas Cedhagen (University of Aarhus), Samuel Bowser (NY State Department of Health, Albany), Wolfgang Kuhnt and Jutta Wollenburg (University of Kiel), Bob Jones (BP Exploration Operating Company), John Murray (Southampton Oceanography Centre), Ralf Schiebel and Gerhard Schmiedl (University of Tübingen), Igor Dovgal (University of Kiev) and Dusan Zavodnik (Centre for Marine Research Rovinji, Croatia). I would like to thank these colleagues for their help.

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• Southern North Sea
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• Mediterranean Sea:
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• North Atlantic
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• Arctic
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