This paper deals with the pollen morphology of 118 non-arboreal taxa (80 herbs and 38 shrubs) of the South Andaman Islands, India. Pollen morphology was investigated through an acetolysis method and using a trinocular light microscope. Size, shape, symmetry, polarity, apertural pattern and ornamentation are described for every species. Among 118 taxa, only three have heteropolar pollen grains. Prolate shape is dominant and found in 17 taxa while oblate shape is found only in Macrosolen cochinchinensis. Among the 12 apertural patterns, tricolporate is dominant and found in 48 taxa, whereas hexacolpate pollen is present in Ocimum tenuiflorum. Of the nine ornamentation types recorded, psilate and reticulate types are common; Barleria prionitis and Datura metel are distinct with scabrate and striate ornamentation. These observations are of immense value in taxonomical, melissopalynological, aeropalynological and palaeopalynological studies.

Botryococcus, an important member of the planktonic algae, occurs in freshwater pools, lakes and occasionally in brackish-water lagoons, with wide distribution in tropical and temperate climate zones throughout the world. It is recognised as an oil-producing alga that is found in rock records from the Precambrian onwards. Here, this alga was retrieved from two different lignite mines of Rajasthan and Gujarat (western India), of early Eocene age. Apart from discussing its structural details, alterations in structures and preservation biases, this alga was used to reconstruct the depositional environment of the region based on its morphological and taphonomical characteristics. The images under transmitted light, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy display aggregates of the irregular colonies, spherical to oval in shape, with cups arranged in definite patterns. The taphonomic characteristics of a large number of these algae indicate their autochthonous origin and in situ burial conditions. The dissolution of their outer layers suggests early diagenetic processes and loss of integrity due to microbial activity in the later phases of their burial in these sediments. The environment in the early Eocene has been reconstructed on the basis of the present findings, along with earlier recorded palynofacies from the region.

Muderongia staurota forms with long appendages at the distal end of the apical, lateral and antapical horns have been recovered from the Lower Cretaceous Gangapur Formation of Upper Gondwana sequence from the Chintalapudi Sub-Basin (India). The number of distal appendages reflects the number of plates forming the horns. We include these forms in the new species Muderongia gangapurensis sp. nov. The dinoflagellate cysts recovered suggest a late Berriasian to Valanginian for the lower part and a Hauterivian/Barremian age for the upper part of the studied interval of MJR-11 borehole. Unusual Muderongia and Odontochitina cysts bearing similar long appendages have only occasionally been described or illustrated in the literature from sediments rich in continental organic matter. We suggest that Cretaceous Ceratiaceae bearing such appendages are cysts of thecae that encysted in particular environments, where light, salinity, temperature and chemistry of water masses might have been key to their development. Our conclusion is supported by the high morphological variability of horns in modern Ceratiaceae, which reflects environmental factors. We discuss the plasticity of horns in the fossil record and note that such plasticity is recurring in Ceratiaceae, at least in the Early Cretaceous (145 Ma).

This study seeks to understand the season and location of manufacturing of Roman-era north-western Adriatic laced vessels through an analysis of the pollen trapped inside the cordage and seam wadding used to hold these boats together. Samples were collected from three separate hull remains of this tradition of boatbuilding. Results suggest that, in most instances, the esparto grass (Stipa tenacissima) cordage was manufactured in Spain and then shipped to Italy, while the seam wadding (bast fibres) was likely processed in close proximity to the shipyard. By expanding pollen analysis, especially of seam wadding material, it may be possible to distinguish various building locations within this region of Italy in antiquity.

This assessment of the article by Aria-Nasab et al. (2016), on the palynostratigraphy of the upper part of the Shishtu Formation (Shishtu 2) in central Iran, reveals many shortcomings. The majority of the defects are judged to reflect unwarranted or erroneous taxonomic identifications of the adversely preserved miospores. This, in turn, casts considerable doubt on the compositional integrity of Aria-Nasab et al.'s three proposed stratigraphically successive miospore assemblages, which they dated as encompassing the mid Tournaisian through late Viséan; i.e. within the generalised Mississippian age for Shishtu 2 that had previously been established from marine faunal evidence. We confirm, through examination of their illustrations, the presence of recycled Late Devonian palynomorphs, including Retispora lepidophyta. A late Tournaisian through late Viséan or early Serpukhovian age for the sampled Shishtu 2 section is suggested here.

An aqueous solution of LST^® is one of many heavy liquids used to concentrate palynomorphs. It and aqueous solutions of sodium polytungstate (SPT) are replacing toxic heavy liquids, such as bromoform and zinc bromide, and to a lesser extent zinc chloride, in many palynology laboratories. Both non-toxic heavy liquids can be recycled through filtering and evaporation of water and/or ethanol added to the sample during processing, and commonly are. Both media, and especially LST^®, are somewhat reactive with organic matter, and in humic-acid rich samples become contaminated and discoloured. This paper presents the authors' methods for recycling LST^® and removing contamination through a combination of filtration through activated charcoal and 0.45 µm nylon membranes. Filtration through Celite^® was found to be unnecessary.

We present pollen proxy records of the variability in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) precipitation during the last ∼4ka (ka = thousand years ago; Late Holocene) from a lacustrine area of Koriya District in Chhattisgarh (C'garh), (central Indian core monsoon zone [CMZ]), India. The results show that open, mixed tropical, deciduous forest occupied the region under a warm and moderately humid climate probably indicative of moderate monsoon precipitation between ∼3796 and ∼2428 cal yr BP. Subsequently, between ∼2428 and ∼1431 cal yr BP, the forest became dense and succeeded the open, mixed tropical, deciduous forest owing to the prevalence of a warm and relatively more humid climate with increased monsoon precipitation. The forest became less diversified from ∼1431cal yr BP to Present under the regime of a warm and relatively less humid climate with decreased monsoon precipitation.

Assemblages of dinoflagellate cysts in lakebed sediments across the deep, meromictic basin of Sluice Pond (Lynn, Massachusetts) were compared with measurements of water quality and sediment geochemistry and with testate amoeba and tintinnid assemblages. Lakebed sediments below oxygenated waters (DO >2 mg/L) contain diverse testate amoebae, but sparse Peridinium willei-dominated dinoflagellate cyst assemblages. Sediments collected under hypoxic conditions (DO < 2 mg/L) showed higher preservation of organic carbon and nitrogen, and these deep basin sediments are characterised by diverse dinoflagellate cyst assemblages, but sieved microfossil assemblages are typically dominated by the planktonic Codonella cratera and the pseudo-planktonic Cucurbitella tricuspis. Strong inverse relationships of cysts of Peridinium willei (R² = 0.81) and Difflugia oblonga tests (R² = 0.7) with water depth are attributed to variations in bottom water oxygen concentrations. Both ecological and taphonomic factors must be considered when reconstructing palaeoenvironments from microfossil assemblages.

Pollen morphology of 64 species and five varieties of the genus Stellaria L. was studied using scanning electron microscopy and compared with that of Myosoton Moench. Of these, 60 species and four varieties were reported for the first time. Pollen grains of genus Stellaria are spheroidal or spheroidal-polyhedral, pantoporate and 21.36–38.38 µm in size, and have 10–22 prominent or sunken apertures uniformly distributed on their surface. Granules are present on the opercules of all species except for S. uchiyamana. The surface ornamentation of Stellaria pollen grains is of the microechinate-perforate type, microechinate-punctate type or microechinate-punctate-perforate type. The exceptional morphological similarity of Stellaria and Myosoton supports the combination of the genus Myosoton with the genus Stellaria.

This paper presents a first detailed study on and new zonation scheme for the Kaikang Trough, Muglad Basin of South Sudan. The Kaikang Trough lies within the central sediment locus of the Muglad Basin, a nonmarine African cratonic basin within the Central African Rift System (CARS) Two wells, KW-1 and K-4, were examined leading to the recognition of five palynological assemblage zones: K-I (early–middle Cenomanian), K-II (late Cenomanian), K-III (Turonian?—Santonian), K-IV (Campanian—Maastrichtian) and K-V (Maastrichtian). The elaterate group are peculiarly absent in otherwise rich Cenomanian palynological assemblages of the Muglad Basin. Why this is so, and the implications for the global middle Cretaceous Elaterate Province, needs some explanation. The CARS provided a range of diverse freshwater alluvial and lake-shore substrates. Its cross-continent sweep may have played a role in the evolution and dispersal of floras including early angiosperms as the rift basin of the proto-South Atlantic became a permanently flooded fjord.