Phytoliths are microscopic siliceous particles that precipitate within epidermal cells of plant leaves. Phytolith morphology and its carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) are often used to understand the past vegetation composition. To extract phytoliths from modern plants, two different wet-oxidation, dry ashing and microwave digestion techniques have been used. However, the impact of these techniques

Glomeromycotan spores from the Early Devonian Rhynie chert frequently contain evidence of colonization by other fungi. However, relatively few of these relationships have been described and evaluated. Brijax amictus gen. et sp. nov., a probable chytrid (Chytridiomycota) associated with certain thick-walled archeosporalean acaulospores from the Rhynie chert, develops largely within the host spore wall

A set of 30 modern pollen samples collected in pine communities of the Gúdar Range (southeastern Iberian System) has been investigated to determine the relationships between pollen percentages and vegetation composition along a ~ 1000 m elevation transect. Pollen representation was estimated by comparing the presence of plant taxa from a recent vegetation survey with pollen spectra. Classification

This paper presents a palynological study of the archeological layers from the Neanderthal site Abrigo 3 del Complejo del Humo, in southern Spain (Málaga), with the aim of reconstructing the environmental conditions in the vicinity of this hominin site. The Upper Pleistocene vegetation and its variability are described, revealing a high diversity of thermophilous plant taxa throughout the cold dry

Croton has ca. 1200 species and a pantropical distribution, representing the second largest genus in Euphorbiaceae. In this work, we aim to characterize morphologically the pollen grains of 105 species of Croton, besides other representatives of tribe Crotoneae, to provide palynological data sustaining its current delimitation and classification and understand how pollen grains evolved in the tribe

Ceratophyllaceae Gray is a cosmopolitan submersed family in angiosperm. The fossil record is mainly composed of fruits ranging in age from the Cretaceous to the Neogene within the Northern Hemisphere. However, its fossil record in Asia is sparse. Here we report on a fossil fruit attributed to Ceratophyllum aff. muricatum Cham. from the early middle Eocene of the Niubao Formation in Bangor County, central

Alethopteris ascendens Halle is an endemic element in the Permian Cathaysian floras and is assumed to be a member of the Medullosales based on its alethopterid type foliage. Previous accounts have documented only its pinnae and bipinnate fronds, but other parts of the plant are unknown. Here we describe new specimens from the earliest Permian (Asselian) Wuda Tuff Flora that are identified as A. ascendens

The section of São Pedro da Torre (NW Portugal) is relevant because its rich pollen content, chronologically correlated to the late Pliocene assemblages of the reference section of Rio Maior. The purpose of this study was to carry out, for the first time in the area, a taxonomic analysis of the carpological remains and integrate the results with those of the previous palynological studies. Our carpological

Jurassic flora of the Tibetan Plateau is poorly known, with limited fossil records. The paleobiogeography of terrestrial biota is, however, one of the major evidences to reconstruct the intricate paleogeography of an area. Well-preserved fossil wood is described from the Middle Jurassic Xiali Formation (Callovian) in the South Qiangtang terrane of the Tibetan Plateau, SW China. The wood specimen is

A new anatomical study of the fossil material assigned to Menendoxylon areniensis Lutz 1979 (family Fabaceae) was performed. In this study, new wood anatomical characteristics were observed. These are diagnostic characters present in the family, Combretaceae. Also, its presence suggests an adaptation to environmental variability: numerous vessels (mean 14–52 vessels/mm2), small vessel diameter (mean

The identification of Myrtaceae pollen to species level in fossil records has challenged palynologists due to the similarity of pollen grains produced by species in this family. Here, we present a pollen morphological study of the Myrtaceae species found in a specific region of southeastern Australia, the islands of the Furneaux Group in Bass Strait, and apply this to fossil pollen records from the

The Late Triassic radiation of cyst-forming dinoflagellates in the Southern Hemisphere is investigated in the Northern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. This major depocenter, situated on the southern margin of the Tethys Ocean, accumulated extensive deltaic and shallow marine successions at this time, that frequently host early dinoflagellate cyst assemblages. Numerous petroleum exploration wells

The striped hyena is the largest living omnivorous scavenger in SW Asia. It generally lives in semi-arid desert steppe regions, often denning in small caves, rock shelters, and burrows close to human settlements. Bone fragments of wild and domestic animals and desiccated scats are frequently found in the hyena dens. In this study, eight striped hyena desiccated scats were subjected to pollen analysis

Pollen retention on clothes, footwear, hair and body has been used to link people to localities with distinctive vegetation, or soils containing distinctive palynomorphs. Little attention has been given to human skin as a possible medium for carrying a forensically important pollen load and whether this might survive attempts to remove it. We report here the results of experiments testing the retention

The adpression fossil record from the Westphalian of the Intrasudetic Basin (Czech Republic) contains diversified medullosan prepollen organs. Langsettian bell-shaped prepollen organs were found in the Lampertice Member in the Žacléř area: Whittleseya elegans Newberry, W. delphinae Stockmans et Willière, W. silesiaca Pacyna et Zdebska and Givesia media (Stockmans) Stockmans et Willière. These fructifications

Staphylea has abundant isolated seeds in the fossil record, but no fossil fruits of this genus have been confirmed before. In this paper, we report a capsular fruit of Staphylea from the Oligocene Renova Formation of Woodworth, western-central Montana, USA. Detailed investigation of this fruit gives new insights on the phylogenetic and biogeographic history of the genus. Morphological comparison with

The exploration of Lateglacial vegetation history in Schleswig-Holstein is elaborate and comprehensive. Despite being one of the most studied areas, regarding to the Lateglacial, no biostratigraphy covering the complete Lateglacial and Early Holocene periods without hiatus have so far been recovered. In this paper we present a biostratigraphy of the Nahe paleolake, therewith intending to deal with

Plants and insects are the two most diverse groups among terrestrial macro-organisms. They interact with each other to various extents, and constitute the most significant part of complex terrestrial ecosystems. The early Permian tuff flora in Wuda, China, buried by volcanic ash in its growth position, represents an intricate peat-forming forest in the subtropics of the eastern Tethys. However, the

Six species of Umaltolepis, the female organs of certain Pseudotorellia species, have been described previously from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Iran, China, Central Mongolia and the Russian Far East. Remains of Umaltolepis are here recognized in the Middle Jurassic of Uzbekistan for the first time. Two new species – Umaltolepis sogdianica sp. nov. and U. involuta sp. nov. – are described from the

The Jiuxi Basin is the earliest developed petroleum production area in China, and the Lower Cretaceous strata in this area are the main source rocks in this basin. Although the strata in this area are rich in fossils and have been researched for a long period, different interpretations of their geological age have been proposed. In this study, palynological samples collected from the Chijinbao Formation

A new and exceptionally hairy marattialean fern of an early Permian age having pecopterid sterile pinnules and strongly enrolled fertile pinnules, Scolecopteris minuta sp. nov., is described from the uppermost Taiyuan Formation of the Wuda coalfield in Inner Mongolia. The fertile fronds are at least tripinnate, with lanceolate to linear penultimate pinnae and oblong ultimate pinnae. Each pinnule bearing

A new whole-plant species of a calamitacean, Palaeostachya guanglongii sp. nov., is described in a volcanic ash bed from the Cisuralian (lower Permian) Wuda Coalfield, Inner Mongolia, North China. It was an approximately 2–3 m high shrub-like plant growing in a peat-forming swamp. It is characterized by three-orders of axes. The stem (first-order axis) bifurcates, resulting in two equal-sized major

A 66 cm thick volcanic ash fall tuff occurring within a thick coal deposit and containing a paleobotanical fossil lagerstätte in the Wuda coal district of North China has been dated as 298.34 ± 0.09 Ma. The fossil flora in the tuff indicates a latest Carboniferous to earliest Permian age and is thus in agreement with the radioisotopic age of earliest Permian, Asselian, age. This bed supplies a well-defined

A palynological study of the Upper Cretaceous–lower Paleocene outcrop section at Tattofte (westernmost External Rif, Morocco) has produced a well-preserved palynological assemblage rich in dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts). For the first time, these assemblages have allowed us to determine the age of this section, to highlight a new Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, and to make paleobiogeographic interpretations

Pollen morphology of 19 species, 4 subspecies, and 1 variety of Carlina was studied in detail by light and scanning electron microscopy. Qualitative and quantitative pollen morphological characters which vary between taxa are found in the length of the ectocolpi, presence/nature of the echinae, pollen size and shape, lumina area, P/E ratio, polar axis, equatorial diameter, pollen shape, ectocolpi length

The 1.6975–1.965 Ma (MIS 60–MIS 74) portion of the El'gygytgyn Lake record includes two key chronostratigraphic markers in the Calabrian–Gelasian boundary (1.806 Ma) and the Olduvai paleomagnetic excursion (1.77–1.95 Ma). It also provides the first paleovegetation information for these times from the eastern Arctic. Palynological data indicate the dominance of Larix forest and forest-tundra during

Pollen records of a lacustrine sedimentary profile from the Chhattisgarh State, central India revealed that between ~ 22,200 and 18,658 cal yr BP, open vegetation occupied the landscape under a cool and dry climate, probably indicating a reduced monsoon precipitation. This cool and dry climate, influenced by weakening of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), globally matches with the Last Glacial Maximum

Two compressions of fertile Myriotheca anglica Kidston pinnae from Kidston's type collection have been studied for the first time since the publication of its protologue. The specimens came from the Lower Coal Measures Formation (middle Langsettian Substage) of the Central Pennines Basin, UK. SEM observations have shown that this species has pinnules with 17–22 Pecopteris-type sporangia, with an apical

This paper reviews the past distribution of Aleppo pine woodlands in the Ebro Basin, Northeastern Iberia, from the Mesolithic to Modern times based on wood charcoal data. The aim is to detail the chronological timing and the drivers explaining the long-term presence of Aleppo pine woodlands and associated thermophilous flora. The available charcoal data support the early spread of Pinus halepensis

The paper documents in detail the morphology, epidermal features and cuticle ultrastructure of the leaves of the Mesozoic conifer genus Anabarella Abramova 1984. For the first time, the leaf epidermal and cuticle structures of the type species Anabarella kryshtofovichii Abramova from the Albian–Cenomanian (Cretaceous) of the Anabar river basin (East Siberia, Arctic Russia) were studied with the scanning

Four Dicroidium species and associated fertile organs are here described from the late Permian Umm Irna Formation (Dead Sea Region, Jordan). Dicroidium irnense, D. jordanense and D. robustum, which were so far only known from the Wadi Himara locality, are now reported from several other sites, some yielding nearly complete fronds and excellently preserved cuticles; D. hughesii, a species so far only

The Red River Delta (RRD), one of the two largest deltas in Vietnam, has been severely affected by natural hazards induced by global climate change. Understanding the Holocene paleoshoreline is crucial in developing adaptive planning in response to future shoreline changes based on past natural shoreline changes. This study presents new data pertaining to pollen, grain size, lithological characteristics

The modern environment of southern China is dominated by a humid monsoon climate, and presents a striking contrast to the widespread deserts found at similar latitudes elsewhere. The formation of a monsoon climate marks a major environmental shift in southern China during the Cenozoic; however, the origin and possible driving mechanism of the climate transition remain unclear. Paleogene palynological

A palynological study of carbonate mounds of Atlantic and Mediterranean Moroccan margins was conducted on sediment boxcores MD13-3441, MD13-3456, MD13-3461, MD13-3465, MD13-3468 collected during the oceanographic cruise MD 194/Eurofleet - GATEWAY, which took place on June 2013. The organic remaining revealed a dominance of dinoflagellate cysts over the continental fraction, which showed very low rates

The genus Tingia Halle is one of the most typical taxa of the Cathaysia Flora. However, its affinity, has long been uncertain. Tingia unita Wang 2006 was named based on the discovery of a crown of a tree that shows the organic connection of the simple compound leaves and the strobili with the stem. It is among the very few species of the Noeggerathiales of which both fertile and sterile parts are known

Thin (3–6 cm) arborescent lycopsid axes that conform to the genus Sigillaria have been discovered upright in situ in the Wuda Tuff (Asselian: Inner Mongolia, China). Given that a broad lycopsid tree, Sigillaria cf. ichthyolepis, was the sole arborescent lycopsid taxon previously known from the assemblage, the new fossils were initially assumed to be juveniles of S. cf. ichthyolepis when assessed in

A high-resolution palynological analysis of the Cenomanian to Lower Campanian in the Trunch borehole, Norfolk (southern North Sea basin) is documented. This constitutes the most detailed continuous record of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) from a single Upper Cretaceous section to date. A revised stratigraphic framework for the Trunch succession is presented, integrating regional marker

Paleopalynological records of 1.1 m deep lacustrine sediment profile from the central Indian Core Monsoon Zone (CMZ) have provided a prolonged warming trend over the last ca. 11,700 years. Palynological evidence suggests that between ca. 11,700 and 8500 cal yr BP, a mixed tropical deciduous forest occurred in the region under a warm and humid climate with good monsoon precipitation. The forest expanded

The Mammoth subchron was a significant geomagnetic reversed polarity event within the Gauss normal chron interval; however, the availability of high-resolution climate change records during this period is limited. We reconstructed the vegetation and climate history in the period using high-resolution pollen records from core PL02 (depths from 705.7 to 678.9 m) from the Yinchuan Basin, northwestern

To examine the relationship between plant presence and pollen presence, modern pollen samples were collected and counted from natural moss polsters in the UK uplands. The herbaceous pollen signal is difficult to interpret in paleoecological analysis as pollen presence is often rare for individual herb taxa. Indices of association have previously been used to determine association from over- and under-representation;

The tropical Southeast Asia area is rich in plant diversity, and the current environment conditions, especially the vegetation, were formed through a series of complicated processes, both geological and biological, in the past. One of the most powerful tools to reveal these processes is pollen analysis. However, so far, it is still poorly understood in the modern pollen rain, hindering further palynological

Pollen of middle Oligocene to early Miocene age from core sediments from the New Jersey Shallow Shelf (Atlantic Coastal Plain: IODP-Expedition 313, Site M0027A), was analyzed using light- and scanning electron microscopy, and a pollen-based bioclimatic analysis was performed. The microflora is dominated by Quercus pollen. Pollen ornamentations indicate that Quercus pollen most likely originated from

For this study, we used leaves of fossilized Metasequoia nathorstii from the Middle Eocene sediments of the Axel Heiberg Island of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and the leaves of modern M. glyptostroboides collected from the garden of the Komarov Botanical Institute RAS. Feulgen staining of the Metasequoia fossil leaves revealed the preservation of Feulgen-positive, heterogeneously stained nuclear

The Pennsylvanian lowlands of western Pangea are best known for their diverse wetland floras of arborescent and herbaceous ferns, and arborescent horsetails and clubmosses. In apparent juxtaposition, a very different kind of flora, dominated by a xerophilous assemblage of conifers, taeniopterids and peltasperms, is occasionally glimpsed. Once believed to represent upland or extrabasinal floras from

The fossil record of Aponogeton (Aponogetonaceae) is scarce and the few reported macrofossil findings are in need of taxonomic revision. Aponogeton pollen is highly diagnostic and when studied with light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) it cannot be confused with any other pollen types. The fossil Aponogeton pollen described here represent the first reliable Cretaceous and Eocene

Abies alba (fir), a submontane tree from Central European mountains and uplands, is of special interest for palaeoecological and palaeoclimate interpretations due to its sensitivity to air and soil humidity. Its present distribution limit in the uplands of SE Poland is still a matter of debate. In the Holocene fir expanded to Poland very late, but early fir populations are supposed to occur in the

By using cuticular analysis for the first time laurophyllous leaf remains from the European Tertiary have been reliably identified as belonging to the Oleaceae. Despite ecologically determined variation in cuticular structures, Late Miocene leaf material from northern Italy is assigned to a single species, Oleinites liguricus Sachse n. sp. The associated oleaceous pollen grains support that this species

The Lateglacial and Early Holocene vegetation history of the northern Wetterau and Amöneburger Basin, two intra-montane basins in Hessen, central-west Germany, is reconstructed by means of pollen and macrofossil analyses. Regional pollen assemblage zones are defined for the Lateglacial and Early Holocene. After calibration of the radiocarbon dates and establishment of age/depth relationships, the ages

Palm swamp forest sediments collected in French Guiana provide new data about late Holocene rainforest. Two cores were collected in 'Les Nouragues' ecological station (4 degrees 05'N, 52 degrees 40'W). The lithology shows two different types of sediment, organic peat in the upper part and oxidized clay with low organic content and lacking pollen in the lower part, both separated by a gravel horizon

The altitudinal vegetation distribution in the northern Andes during glacial time differed from the present-day conditions as a result of temperature and precipitation change. New evidence indicate that as a response to a reduced atmospheric partial CO(2) pressure (pCO(2)), the competitive balance between C(3) and C(4) plants have changed. Effects may have remained virtually undetected in pollen records

Coniferous foliage from the Albian of Alexander Island, Antarctica, is assigned to the Araucariaceae, Podocarpaceae, and Taxodiaceae based on attached or associated fertile remains. Araucarian foliage represented by Araucaria alexandrensis sp. nov. and A. chambersii sp. nov. is associated with ovulate cone scales described as Araucarites wollemiaformis sp. nov. and A. citadelbastionensis sp. nov.,

Anatomically preserved ovules are described from silicified peat of Late Permian age collected from Skaar Ridge in the central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica. The small ovules are significant in possessing fleshy apical appendages and a funnel-shaped micropylar extension formed by the sarcotestal layer of the integument, by which they differ from all other Permian ovules described to date. The

A new taxon Freyantha sibirica gen. et sp. nov. is erected for a delicate racemose inflorescence from the Cenomanian of the Tchulymo-Yenisey Basin, West Siberia. The inflorescence bears male flowers of partly connate stamens that produced tricolpate reticulate pollen grains. The flowers are subtended by calyptrate bracts. The taxonomically significant features of the general inflorescence morphology

New fertile specimens of Archaeopteris roemeriana from Upper (but not uppermost) Famennian strata of Belgium have been studied. Crowded sporangia are borne on non-laminate, three times bifurcate fertile leaves helically arranged around the fertile ultimate axes. Vegetative leaves occur both proximal and distal to the fertile leaves. Heterospory is demonstrated with miospores belonging to the Geminospora-Aneurospora

A new calcareous dinoflagellate cyst species, Orthopithonella collaris sp. nov., is described from the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary clay (Fish Clay) of Stevns Klint, Denmark, on the basis of SEM studies and light-microscopic analyses of thin sections of single specimens. The species has been found exclusively in the Fish Clay and as such may be a potential marker for the K/T boundary. Its pulse-like