Because of their resistant to cold water dissolution, which severely destroys the calcareous planktonic fossils at depth worldwide, Radiolarians has become one of the most commonly studied siliceous planktonic fossils for paleotemperature reconstruction. 
Study of Radiolarians in the North Pacific deep sea cores has revealed that increases in both species diversity and abundance correspond to major glaciation events of the last 16 million years. Changes in Radiolarian compositions are also evident to reflect in general sea surface temperature.
By applying statistical analyses (Q-mode factor analysis), many quantitative studies of Radiolarian assemblages from surface sediments have established a transfer function which enables the estimation of paleo-sea surface temperature. For example, Pisias et al. (1997) were able to identify assemblages representative to the present Pacific biogeography and used these assemblages to predict sea surface temperature of the last glacier maximum.