Natural pollen traps have been known for many years. This study analyzed the palynological characteristics of 12 ant nests on branches and 12 surface soil samples, collected from tropical areas of Yunnan and Hainan in China. Pollen grains and spores of 21 taxa belonging to 21 families were recorded from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden and 30 taxa from 27 families were recorded from Xinglong Tropical Botanical Garden. Ant nests yielded nine taxa belonging to nine families from the Geopark in Haikou. There is a close relationship between the pollen assemblages from ant nests and those from surface soil. Although the average similarity of pollen taxa between them reaches approximately 70%, surface soil proves to be a more effective trap than ants' nests.

This study describes the results of palynological, macrobotanical, and microfaunal investigations of 19 coprolites from the Paisley Five Mile Point Caves locality (35LK3400) situated in south-central Oregon, USA. This collection represents two discreet chronological phases (ca. 2200 and 9600–10800 radiocarbon years before present (RCYBP)) and suggests the use of a wide array of faunal and floral resources found adjacent to the cave complex. Here we compare macrofossils, animal hair and pollen recovered from these samples with regional ethnographic and historic data to infer probable exploitation of dietary resources by the inhabitants of the rockshelter. Our results suggest that the residents of the Paisley Caves during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene transition followed subsistence regimes heavily reliant on lagomorphs and dryland plant resources similar to those employed by later Native groups.

Four new species and one new variety of dinoflagellate cysts and one new acritarch species are described from the Lower Cretaceous Athabasca Oil Sands of northern Alberta, Canada. The new taxa are Batioladinium? vestigium var. vestigium, Batioladinium? vestigium var. granulatum, Craspedodinium robustum, Nyktericysta inflata, Oligosphaeridium tuberculatum and Fromea? plicata. They characterise brackish to stressed marine environments in the McMurray, Clearwater and Grand Rapids formations.

Amacayacu Forest Dynamics Plot (AFDP) is a 25-ha (500 m × 500 m) site located at Amacayacu National Natural Park (ANNP), Colombian Amazonia. The flora of AFDP is represented by terra firme Forest, the phytophysiognomic unit of the Amazon region with the greatest richness of plant species. However, high-resolution pollen images and morphological descriptions from the Amazon North-west are still rare. This study presents detailed information about pollen grains that will benefit future palynological analyses, particularly of Quaternary material. Herein we describe 255 tree species, comprising 72 families and 192 genera. Those species were grouped into 236 morphotypes. Six species revealed morphological variations among the pollen types within the same species and 36 species were impossible to differentiate from each other. Overall morphology shows apertures with a dominance of tricolporate (61%), inaperturate (5.8%), monocolpate (5.5%), and triporate (4.7%), and variation of sexine sculptures, with dominance of reticulate (66%), scabrate (11.3%), echinate (7.05%) and rugulate (4.3%). With respect to size, the equatorial diameter has a median of 29 µm (SD = 15.5), while the polar diameter has median of 32 µm (SD = 14.7).

Round brown process-bearing cysts (RBPC) produced by dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae) occur as an important part of assemblage diversities in seafloor sediments worldwide. Here a new species, Islandinium pacificum, is described from surface sediment samples from coastal waters of British Columbia (Canada). Additional observations are made on material from the Holocene of Kyuquot Sound (Vancouver Island, Canada) and the Eemian of the Vøring Plateau (North Atlantic). The cysts have a smooth wall and bear acuminate processes with barbs. Incubation experiments reveal an affinity with the motile stage Protoperidinium mutsuense. The ecology of the new species is specified.

The present palynological study of the Cretaceous succession in the Drazia-1 Well has been performed on 140 cutting samples covering the Barremian to Maastrichtian interval. This study yielded 33 species of spores, 16 of gymnosperm pollen grains, 14 angiosperm pollen grains and 26 dinoflagellate cysts. Based on the quantitative and qualitative palynological analyses carried out in the studied interval, 12 informal palynozones are proposed for the succession. Eight palynofacies assemblages are differentiated based on the qualitative and quantitative analyses of particulate organic matter. Khoman, Abu Roash, and middle part of Kharita formations are characterized by kerogen type II (oil prone), while the Bahariya, lowermost part of Kharita, Dahab, Alamein, and Alam El Bueib formations show kerogen type II–III (oil to gas prone). Meanwhile the upper and lower parts of Kharita Formation display type III-IV kerogen (gas to inert material). Six depositional environments are interpreted throughout the studied succession.

Pollen loads of Apis mellifera were analysed to assess their daily pollen collection, polleniferous flora and their pollen biomass contribution in southern West Bengal, India. After that, the pollen host selection and pollen foraging activity of the bee species were also determined. The average daily harvest of pollen loads per honey bee colony was 8.5 g to 127.2 g. The pollen flow through the colonies was the highest during spring, followed by winter and summer, whereas during the monsoon it was the lowest. The weight of a single pollen load ranged from 3.22 mg to 11.73 mg and greatly varied within each season, but seasonal average values do not statistically differ. Families that contributed major amount of biomass were Arecaceae, Myrtaceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Pedaliaceae and Apiaceae. Taxa providing large amounts of biomass were Brassica nigra, Eucalyptus globulus, Borassus flabellifer, Sesamum indicum, Acacia auriculiformis, Coriandrum sativum, Cocos nucifera, Phoenix sylvestris and Mikania scandens (Asteraceae). As the bee species foraged on 26.32% (80 plant taxa) of the local angiosperm flora, the broad polylecty category was inferred. The pollen host selection by the bee species significantly depends on the flower availability index (FAi) and pollen availability index (PAi) rather than on an individual flower's pollen quality (in term of pollen morphological characteristics and crude protein content) and pollen quantity (number of pollen grains/flower and amount of pollen biomass/flower). The pollen foraging activity of the bee species varied according to time as well as season. The activity was higher between 9.00 and 10.00 am. Seasonally, the highest activity was observed in spring and the lowest during the monsoon. Furthermore, the ratio of pollen foragers to total incoming foragers also varied according to the time of day as well as the season, and was largely dependent of resource availability.

William G. (‘Bill') Chaloner FRS (1928–2016) was one of the world's leading palaeobotanists and palynologists. He developed a love of natural science at school which led to a penchant for palaeobotany at university. Bill graduated in 1950 from the University of Reading, and remained there for his PhD, supervised by Tom Harris, on the spores of Carboniferous lycopods. After completing his PhD in 1953, Bill undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in the USA. He returned to the UK and, in 1956, began a long and distinguished academic career at four colleges of the University of London. His first position was at University College London, where he continued to work on Paleozoic palaeobotany and palynology. His 1958 paper on the effects of fluctuating sea levels on Carboniferous pollen-spore assemblages proved highly influential. Bill moved to a Chair at Birkbeck College in 1972, began to use the scanning electron microscope and was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1976. He is the only pre-Quaternary palynologist to have been given the latter honour. In 1979, Bill was appointed to the Chair of Botany at Bedford College where he began to apply plant fossil evidence to general scientific problems. He began to work on arthropod–plant interactions, fossil charcoal and growth rings in wood. Bill was awarded the Medal for Scientific Excellence by the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists in 1984. Bedford College and Royal Holloway College merged in 1985, and Bill moved to the amalgamated institution. Bill continued to investigate very diverse topics, and added the analysis of leaf stomata, global environmental change and molecular palaeontology to his portfolio. Following retirement in 1994, Bill continued his research and teaching at Royal Holloway, University of London. His final paper was published in 2016, bringing to an end a research career of 66 years.

This study presents a high-resolution palynological analysis for the Abu Roash ‘A' Member in the hydrocarbon-rich Abu Gharadig Basin, North Western Desert, Egypt. Thirty-one rock samples, spanning the upper Coniacian to lower Campanian Abu Roash ‘A' Member (180 m) from the Badr El Din (BED) 2-3 borehole, were investigated. Highly diverse and well-preserved assemblages of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts were recorded. A total of 220 species belonging to 123 genera were identified from different levels throughout the studied succession. The marine dinoflagellate cysts represented herein by 160 species allowed three palynological assemblage zones to be recognised. These include the Satyrodinium haumuriense-Isabelidinium belfastense-Odontochitina operculata Assemblage Zone (early Campanian), Dinogymnium acuminatum-Nelsoniella aceras-Odontochitina porifera Assemblage Zone (Santonian), and Cyclonephelium filoreticulatum-Spinidinium echinoideum Assemblage Zone (late Coniacian). Approximately 17 species representing 14 dinoflagellate cyst genera are identified for the first time in the Cretaceous record of Egypt. A comparison to published palynological data from neighbouring areas reveals that several significant events are synchronous throughout the Western Desert, suggesting a common similarity of water masses. Palynofacies and palynomorph analyses of the whole samples led us to define two palynofacies assemblages, which indicate that the Abu Roash ‘A' Member was deposited during a successive oscillation of sea level from distal inner to middle neritic conditions. A sequence stratigraphic framework assessment was carried out to trace the relative response of the sedimentological organic matter distribution to the changes of sea level. Four third-order transgressive–regressive sequences (SQ2–SQ5) and two incomplete transgressive–regressive sequences (SQ1 and SQ6) are constructed through the Abu Roash ‘A’ Member.

The aim of this study was to analyse the pollen morphological diversity among 19 species of the Adesmieae and Aeschynomeneae tribes with the purpose of evaluating their importance for the taxonomical delimitation of the Argentinean species and their systematic significance. Observations and measurements were performed on acetolysed pollen grains. The samples were examined under light and scanning electron microscopes. Principal component analysis (PCA) and conglomerate analysis were performed for quantitative morphological variables. The tribe Adesmieae is stenopalynous while the tribe Aeschynomeneae is eurypalynous; their pollen grains are 3-colporate, and they have lolongate, circular or lalongate endoapertures, semitectate-reticulate or tectate-perforate, fossulate, supra-rugulate exine, small to large size, and suboblate to prolate shapes. A key was made to identify and distinguish species of Adesmia, Aeschynomene, Chaetocalyx, Discolobium, and Poiretia. Exine sculpture and structure, presene of operculum, exine thickness, pollen shape, endoaperture shape, and pollen size all had taxonomic importance to distinguish the species inhabiting Argentina. The groupings recognised in recent classifications are hard to delimit on the basis of the palynological knowledge at this time since there are different pollen types but various of them occur among the three subclades. A framework for future evolutionary analyses within the dalbergioid clade is thus provided.