Coccolith Formation

WITH the application of culture methods to the study of coccolithophorids, evidence is now accumulating 1 in favour of the older hypothesis that coccoliths are formed inside the cell. This hypothesis has recently received further support from electron microscope investigations of other types of scale-bearing Chrysophyceae 2 . So far, however, the process of coccolith formation does not appear to have been studied by experimental means.