In this book, evolutionary classification and nomenclature in the Cretaceous planktic foraminifera with at least one stage with chambers alternately added with respect to the test growth axis are analysed in seven articles. The first article in this book presents new data about the group's evolutionary origin and different aspects of the iterative evolution of the planktic habitat in the foraminiferal history, together with a critical review of some past ideas on this topic. A new benthic foraminiferal genus is described. The evolution of different lineages is presented in five successive articles, which show the importance of high resolution data in reconstructing the group's evolutionary history. Four new lineages are described. A new perspective on the classification of the planktic foraminifera is presented in the last article, where at the scale of the entire group a new and upward evolutionary classification, is applied. The fundamental unit of organisation is changed from species to lineage through a shift at paradigm level in understanding the evolution of the fossil record. In further developments in evolutionary classification, a new nomenclature system is applied.
The new nomenclature uses English instead of Latin and has a rate of compression of around 1:18 (one English word for 18 Latin words).