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Why do certain foraminiferan protists living below the photic zone sequester intact chloroplasts? This "kleptoplast conundrum" has been described for Nonionella stella from a bathyal site (Santa Barbara Basin) (1,2), but recent epifluorescence microscopic surveys ofBeggiatoa-laden sediments cored from the oxygen-depleted, sulfide-enriched bathyal Cariaco Basin (Venezuela) (3) revealed the presence of photosynthetic pigments in yet another benthic foraminifer, Virgulinella fragilis.
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Joan M. Bernhard (2003) studied this question.
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