Japanese Star Sand Vial Necklace
Japanese Star Sand Vial Necklace
Foraminifera are tiny, single-celled creatures with hard, protective shells. Considered a biological reference point to paleontologists and an inspiration to Charles Darwin, these shells have appeared in the fossil record for millions of years, and in the case of these specimens, even form entire beaches!
This Star Sand necklace is filled with foraminifera, or "forams," recovered from Star Sand Beach, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It's a beautiful piece of jewelry that highlights a striking natural phenomenon. Each pendant contains a stainless steel-capped glass vial of Star Sand shells and an 18" cable chain.
📸 Hoshizuna-no-hama ( Star Sand Beach ) in Iriomote Island, Taketomi Town, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. 日本語: 星砂の浜。所在地は沖縄県竹富町の西表島。
Fossil Sands
Foraminifera are single-celled creatures which produce a diverse range of beautiful and tiny protective shells. These shells appear in the fossil record as far back as 550 million-years, and in some locations, entire beaches are made up of these so-called "foram sands."
The islands of Okinawa, Japan are home to several foram sand beaches. A folktale from Taketomi-Jima describes the star-shaped shells as the children of the Polar Star and the Southern Cross, devoured and spat out again by a giant serpent which served the Seven Dragon God of the Sea.
📸 A Star Sand Vial Necklace on a bed of forams.
The Japanese Star Sand Vial Pendant is made from Foraminifera from a private collection obtained many years ago from Hoshizuna-no-Hama ("Star Sand Beach") on the island of Iriomote in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
Foram sand beaches contain many billions of foraminifera remains along with other debris one is likely to find on many beaches. To prepare this specimen, we had to begin by separating forams from actual sand and tiny bits of debris, as the sand and the shells are the same size, this was done by hand with tweezers. It is possible that some common beach debris may be included in this specimen but we've done our best separate the forams from the sand and other bits one is likely to find on a beach.
📸 "The tiniest of stars beneath our feet can reveal the greatest mysteries of deep time." ~ from the Second Edition of the Mini Museum
MORE ABOUT FORAMINIFERA
📸 Sorting the Foraminifera
LOOKING TO THE STARS
Human beings have studied foraminifera since at least the 5th century BCE when Herodotus noted their presence in the limestone of Egyptian pyramids. The French naturalist Alcide d'Orbigny (1802-1857), considered the father of modern micropaleontology, personally classified thousands of species in both France and the Americas.
Between the years 1826 and 1833, d'Orbigny toured South America for the Paris Museum of Natural History. During his trip, d'Orbigny gathered over 10,000 different specimens across a very broad spectrum.
📸 Foraminifera illustrated by Alcide d'Orbigny from Les Planches Inédites de Foraminiféres. Note the tiny, actual-size drawings next to their enhanced versions.
When Charles Darwin followed several years later, he found traces of d'Orbigny at every turn. Darwin worried that d'Orbigny might have gathered all of the best specimens, and while the specimens these men returned with might have overlapped in places, each made discoveries that went far beyond the collection of objects.
In Darwin's case, we all know that his great discovery was the Origin of Species or the Theory of Evolution. For d'Orbigny, the journey seemed to solidify his thoughts about the immense power and beauty in the smallest of creatures:
Everything in nature which appears insignificant by mere sight not only remains unknown to the mass of the population, but still escapes whole centuries of observation by the precious few who seek to uncover the beauties of creation. Imagine the myriad of beings we are yet to know and how many years will pass before we have even gained a small idea of scale of all Zoology.
The sheer volume of the largest animals makes us wonder at the marvel of Nature. We exclaim their exquisite perfection. Yet, we are surprised that the world is no less lively as we go down to examine unnoticed beings of extreme smallness.
These tiny creatures compensate for their lack of size through vast numbers, a multiplicity which allows them to play a leading role in the whole of Nature itself without our knowledge. These tiny creatures, some with bodies no larger than a sixth of a millimeter, are spread across the vastness of the surface of the sea. Their remains have the power to create coastlines and alter the course of navigation through bays and straits. We can see this power across time represented throughout every geological layer.
- Alcide d'Orbigny from Foraminiferes de l'ile de Cuba, published in 1839.
📸 Tiny creatures!
Today, scientists often use foraminifera as reference points in the study of climate change over long periods of time. Foraminifera often live symbiotically with microalgae, and together they play an important role in coral reef ecosystems via production of carbonate sands and by buffering daily pH changes. Combined with pollen samples from deep-sea cores and isotopic analysis, the variety of foraminifera species, their physical size and even sexual dimorphism, are valuable in establishing and confirming the existence of climatic zones in ancient seas.
Further Reading
Bandy, Orville L. “Planktonic foraminiferal criteria for paleoclimatic zonation.” (1960).
Doo, Steve S., et al. “Fate of Calcifying Tropical Symbiont-Bearing Large Benthic Foraminifera: Living Sands in a Changing Ocean.” The Biological Bulletin 226.3 (2014): 169-186.
d’Orbigny, Alcide. Foraminiferes de l’ile de Cuba. 1839.
Endo, Shoji. Folktales of Okinawa. Bank Of The Ryukyus International Foundation. 1996.
