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PLAIN- LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Benthic (sea floor dwelling) foraminifera are single celled animals (protozoans) with a hard shell. They are important because they leave a fossil record which gives information about the environment in which they formerly lived. The interpretation of past environments using foraminifera as proxies depends on knowledge of their present-day ecology. This main purpose of this paper is to provide up-to-date species names, and digital images taken on a scanning electron microscope, of 71 commonly occurring foraminiferal species from the continental shelf west of Scotland. In addition, the position of life, either on the surface (epifaunal) or within the sediment (infaunal), is recorded for those species which were alive at the time of collection. The depth of penetration of infaunal species into the sediment is only the top few cm. Below this there is an absence of oxygen. There is no evidence of preferential depth of life for any one species. Eleven of the species have not previously been recorded from this area.