The distribution of neritic, agglutinated tintinnids on the sea floor has been examined using approximately 530 samples from the Arctic Ocean between 115°E and 165°W long., the northern Bering Sea, and the eastern North Pacific between 37°N and 46°N lat. Tintinopsis fimbriata dominates the observed fauna in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea, whereas Stenosemella ventricosa is dominant in the sublittoral region off northern California and Oregon. Species <63µ in diameter and without firmly agglutinated loricas are not likely to have been recovered with sample processing techniques used in this study.

Tintinopsis fimbriata occurs in low frequencies in nearly all samples from the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. It is most common, however, in samples from off the mouths of the largest rivers, particularly the Lena River. It may be a diagnostic brackish-water species. An unidentified Tintinopsis appears to have a similar relation to the Columbia River and the Yaquina River of the Oregon-Washington area. Other distributional patterns appear to be the result of dispersal by either surface currents or bottom currents. This pattern is particularly noticeable in the southeastern Chukchi Sea and off the coast of Oregon and Washington.

A sharp decrease in the number of tintinnid loricas with depth in a core from the southeastern Chukchi Sea suggests that they are less likely to be preserved in the fossil record than are the remains of other common marine microorganisms.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 616------------