Pictured at right here is an example of a live foraminifera which has anchored itself to a nearby glass surface. It has done so by extending fine strands of rhizopodia cytoplasm, pseudopodia, from directly within its body chamber through the porous test and out through the open fluid. There is a surprising amount of tensile and elastic strength in the pseudopodia provided by a microtubule exoskeleton around the pseudopodia. Benthic foraminifera are specialized in such a way that they can anchor themselves to their chosen substrate. As in the picture they can cling to an object by a series of pseudopodia, they can lie on a thin, sticky organic membrane or they can directly anchor their test to the surface with calcite cement. Some foraminifera can actually anchor themselves to the upper boundary between air and water with their pseudopodia using the surface tension to keep themselves suspended just below the waters surface.
