The modern benthic foraminiferal faunas in the Arabian Gulf, and particularly those containing agglutinated foraminifera, have been underexplored. This is especially true for the offshore areas of the southeastern Arabian Gulf area. In this study, we investigate the occurrence and taxonomic composition of modern benthic foraminiferal assemblages with abundant and diverse agglutinated species, particularly the genus Textularia and the related genus Sahulia. Our study of newly collected core and grab samples from the southeastern sector of the Arabian Gulf reveals that the agglutinated forms comprise 12.5 to 45% of the total benthic foraminiferal assemblage, a proportion never previously reported from the Arabian Gulf. We list a total of 23 species of agglutinated foraminifera from the studied samples, of which 14 are textulariids, with some species displaying grain selectivity. The general pattern from shallow to deep stations shows depth-related abundance trends and variability in the morphology of the textulariids, with laterally compressed and coarsely agglutinated taxa more abundant at bathymetrically deeper stations. This study is part of a larger project to investigate the taxonomic composition and distribution of benthic foraminifera from the southeastern portion of the Arabian Gulf, with emphasis on their ecological preferences.
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