Definition of Palynology

Some palynologists suggest that Palynology, and hence also

paleopalynology, applies only to pollen and spores or, more specifically
even, only to pollen and the spores of embryo-producing (embryophytic)
plants.
It should seem true as Hyde and Williams (l944) had that in mind
when they coined the term palynology, a word from the Greek v (I
sprinkle), suggestive of fine meal, which is cognate/related with the
Latin word pollen (fine flour, dust).
However most paleopalynologists instead, use the word
pragmatically, saying in effect that
paleopalynology consists of the study of the organic microfossils
that are found in our maceration preparations of sedimentary
rocks, i.e. What my net catches is a fish
This means palynomorphs, the microfossils which are the subject
matter of this study, consist at least partly of very resistant organic
molecules, usually sporopollenin, chitin or pseudochitin.
Palynomorphs are also by common consent in the approximately 5
500 micrometer = micron = size range.
What is not palynology
Nannofossils are not palynomorphs on two scores.
1. First, they are calcium carbonate CaCO3 and hence are destroyed
by the dilute hydrochloric acid (HCl).
2. Secondly, they are also too small, prevailingly less than 5 micron.
Diatoms are not palynomorphs, although they are in the right size
range, because they are usually siliceous and destroyed by the
hydrofluoric acid (HF) that is the major weapon in the
paleopalynological maceration.
Phytoliths, usually consisting of silica or calcium oxalate, produced
typically by grasses.
They are very useful in various forms of environmental reconstruction.
These are also in the correct size range but are dissolved by the acids in
conventional palynological maceration.

Palynofacies
Associations of palynological matter (PM) in sediments, considered
primarily in terms of the reasons for the association, usually geological,
but may related to the biological origin of particles.
Spores, pollen, dinocysts, acritarchs and all other palynomorphs are
of course included in the palynofacies, but so are other visible organic
particles in the palynological size range (roughly 2250 m) that occur in
palynological maceration residues.
In an older sense, palynofacies may imply the palynomorph load
of a sedimentary rock, seldom including any of the palynodebris, in
which palynomorphs of a particular species are enriched in concentration.
Traverse (2007) called it palynobiofacies, to contrast it with the
more recently emphasized and now dominant usage for palynofacies,
which is for particular assortments of PM, including both palynomorphs
and palynodebris that are associated with an environment of deposition
for prevailingly non-biologic reasons.
Traverse (1999; 2007) suggested calling this sort of palynofacies a
palynolithofacies to emphasize that the concept is primarily geological
not biological, although all constituents of the palynofacies are of
biological origin.
Palynology sample preparation techniques
Field methodology:
North-face of the exposure
Digging for a minimum of 5cm into the rock
Sample weight up to 200 grams
Plastic bags with seal or zip
Label each sample and mark the sample location on log
Laboratory Methodology:
1. Wash sample with water or clean with brush
2. Keep the sample in sunlight or in oven to dry the sample
3. Crush the sample up to 4mm
4. Weight 50-100 grams sample for processing
5. Pour 50 100g of sample in labelled plastic bottle.
6. Add 10% HCl and few drops of ethanol if the reaction is vigorous

7. After an hour check the reaction, Wait for settling and Remove the
water
8. Add fresh distilled water and Repeat this procedure for 3 times
9. Add HF (40%) to sample and keep it in HF for six days
10.
When broken down, decant 3 times with water leaving to
settle each time
11.

Treat with HCl to dissolve flouro-silicate

12.
Sieve through a 250 micron brass sieve and 10 micron nylon
sieve
13.

Prepare 10% weight-weight solution of ZnBr or Zncl

14.

*Label the tubes and Centrifuge for 30 minutes at 4000 rpm

15.
Layer will appear on the top, Remove the layer carefully and
drop the layer on the glass slide
16.
Keep for 24 hours in safe place now Mount it with mounting
magic and leave it for a while
17.

Ready for microscopic studies

Purposes
The primary reasons for doing paleopalynology are as follows.
1. Geochronology
Palynomorphs represent parts of the life-cycles of various plants and
animals that have at times evolved quite rapidly, with the result that such
palynomorphs are characteristic of a fairly narrow time-range and
hence are useful for age dating (geochronology).Before palynological
study was available, geologists often did not know, even within a period or
two, what the age of the rock was (in Pakistan e.g. we dont know the
exact dates of many formation that are otherwise
unfossiliferous).
2. Biostratigraphy
Paleopalynology has become economically important mostly
because palynofloras can be used, beginning with about one-billion year
old rocks (acritarch palynofloras), to show correlation of a section of rocks
from one place with another section of rocks, from a different locality and
of perhaps quite different thickness and quite different lithology.
This work of biostratigraphic (in this case, palynostratigraphic) correlation
is common among oil company palynologists. The sections correlated may
be hundreds of kilometers apart.

More often they are not widely separated, and may be in the same
oil field, where it is very important to know at what level one is drilling,
not in meters of depth, but with reference to known gas or oil production
levels.
3. Paleoecology
It may be important to know as much as possible about various
sorts of environments represented by a sedimentary rock.
Palynology can help here in several ways;
Palynomorphs can be sensitive indicators of the processes of
sedimentation and the source of sediments.
The source organisms of some palynomorphs, e.g. dinoflagellates and
other marine algae, are primarily marine organisms, and their fossils
(dinocysts, various other algal remains attributable to specific groups, and
acritarchs) may be indicators of the biological environment of the
organisms.
Spores/pollen occurring as sporomorphs originate almost exclusively on
the continents. They indicate therefore the presence of source vegetation.
Because plants are sensitive indicators of continental environments
(mostly climates), spores/pollen have much to tell us about climatic
paleoenvironments. This is, of course, the reason for the original
successes of palynology/pollen analysis in Holocene vegetational analysis.
4. Sequence Stratigraphy
Sequence stratigraphy is based on recognition of
correlatable transgressive (flooding) and regressive
surfaces in sedimentary sequences. In general (Haq et
al., 1987), such surfaces are related to worldwide
eustatic change in sea level, but some similar
phenomena have been attributed in some places as to
local tectonic activity.
5. Applicability to Petroleum Source-rock
Exploration
Palynofacies data along with TOC (total organic
carbon) and HI (hydrogen index) information is a good
approach for evaluating the total effect of processes that result in
hydrocarbon accumulation in sediments.
TOC is especially important for source rock formationmost are in
the 210% range. Sediments with less than 2% TOC are usually found to
be barren or contain only gaseous hydrocarbons.

On the other hand, TOC of more than 10% is a rare phenomenon in

extensive sequences (Batten, 1996a). Mehrota, et al. (2002) point out that
high total carbon does not necessarily mean high petroleum source
potential, as the carbon could consist of dark woody material, which is
very poor indicator for oil. A small percent of TOC consisting of AOM of
marine algal origin is a much better indicator.
Al-Ameri and Batten (1997) found that platform environments with a
palynofacies containing more than 50% AOM are indicative of high
petroleum potential.
Vigran et al. (1998) found that their transgressive levels were mostly high
in AOM and in TOC and are potential source rocks.
Batten (1996) says that high amounts of structural matter (STOM)
such as phytoclasts and sporomorphs are poor indicators for source rocks,
and brown-black woody matter and evidence of reworking in the
palynofacies of non-marine sediments are very negative indicators.
Why Paleopalynology Works
1. Ubiquity (omnipresence) of Palynomorphs
Beginning with Precambrian acritarchs, up to 1.4 billion years old,
sporopolleninous and chitinous palynomorphs occur in sedimentary rocks
of all ages and from many different sedimentary and biological
environments.
They originate both on land (spores/pollen = sporomorphs) and in
fresh water (Botryococcus and other algae, some dinoflagellates and a
few sporomorphs) and salt water (most dinoflagellates, acritarchs, and
other algal microscopic remains, the extinct chitinozoans, scolecodonts,
foraminiferal test linings, a few sporomorphs).
2. Abundance and Durability of Palynomorphs
Most palynomorphs, especially spores/pollen and dinoflagellates
tend to be much more abundant than most other fossils. A silt e.g. can
contain five million dinoflagellates per gram.
This provides possibilities for statistics and population studies nearly
unique in paleontology.
A large part of the explanation for this abundance in sediments is the tiny
size of palynomorphs.
3. Fast Evolution
Palynomorphs of various sorts represent preserved parts of the life
cycles of various organisms that, during one or more segments of Earth

history, were comparatively fast evolving, as well as abundant and easy to

collect.
This is a must for biostratigraphy and is true of acritarchs for the latest
Precambrian, Cambrian, and Ordovician, scolecodonts and chitinozoans in
marine sediments of the Ordovician and Silurian, spores in the Devonian,
spores/pollen in all periods since the Devonian, and dinoflagellates in
marine rocks since the Triassic.
Disadvantages and Limitations
Palynomorphs are silt-sized and are therefore sparse or absent in
well-sorted, coarse-grained sandstones and fine-grained claystones.
Palynomorphs are sensitive to oxidation and to high alkalinity and
therefore are not usually recoverable from red bed deposits, clean
limestones generally, evaporitic deposits generally, or weathered rocks,
although there are exceptions.
Palynomorphs are sensitive to high temperatures and pressures and
apparently to crystallization processes in rocks, and are therefore not
usually studied with profit from metamorphosed rock. With methods in
routine laboratory use i.e. light micrscopy , pollen and plant spores are not
routinely determinable below the generic level. Dinoflagellate cysts are
usually not subject to the generic level limitation characteristic for pollen
and spores, and they are therefore intrinsically better suited to
biostratigraphic use in general.
Unfortunately, dinoflagellate cysts are not regularly found in non-marine
sediments, and sporomorphs remain the best microfossils for non-marine
sediments and for connection of non-marine and marine levels in the
same set of sediments. All palynomorphs are subject to reworking, just
because they are so sturdy. They can be weathered and eroded out of the
original sediments, sometimes in multiple cycles of redeposition. A paper
by Utting et al. (2004) reports an especially distressing example of
massive reworking of Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian palynomorphs
into Lower Triassic rocks over very large parts of the world.
When To Use Palynofacie.
Palynofacie are most use full when we have unfossilferrous
formation like sandstone, silt stone etc.
To know the migration of hydrocarbon in oil field. As palynofacie
move with the oil migration, therefore they give that information
which biostratigraphy can't.
Through Palynostaratigraphy one can know about the terrestrial
condition as terrestrial environment can't bear any fossil...

General Occurrence of Palynomorphs in Time

The palynomorphs commonly studied include representatives of
four kingdoms of organisms, all belonging to the eukaryotic domain.
One of the strong selling points for paleopalynology is that from
about one billion years ago (late Precambrian) to present,
sporopolleninous or chitinous palynomorphs of one group or another
are always present in sedimentary rocks of suitable lithology and they are
often biostratigraphically useful (that is, rapidly evolving, ubiquitous,
abundant).
The oldest sporopollenin-containing palynomorphs are sphaeromorph
acritarchs over one billion years old from the former Soviet Union and
from other parts of the world.
The oldest chitinous palynomorphs are Cambrian scolecodonts and
chitinozoans. (Chitinous fungal spores appear much later. With a few
exceptions in the Permian and Triassic, they do not occur regularly until
the Late Jurassic and are not abundant until mid-Cretaceous.)
Precambrian sphaeromorph, sporopolleninous acritarchs were joined by
acritarchs with processes and other modifications in the Cambrian and
Ordovician. Even non-marine sediments began to contain
sporopolleninous fossils in late Ordovician.
Some of these are cryptospores, spore-like bodies lacking the haptotypic
marks typical of true spores. The earliest unquestioned embryophyte
spores are Ashgill (Late Ordovician) trilete spores.In referring
palynomorphs to their appropriate stratigraphic level we use the
general geological time scale.
The Archeophytic extends from about 3.5 billion years (and the
earliest known fossils) to the level of the first robust-walled acritarchs and
the eukaryotes, at about 1.2 bi years ago.
With the first sporopolleninous acritarchs begins the Proterophytic,
extending up to the level of the first spores or spore-like tetrads of the
Late Ordovician-early Silurian
This marks the commencement of the Paleophytic which is
typified by ancient sorts of vascular plants and persists until the Upper
Permian, when conifers, cycadophytes, and other advanced gymnosperms
came to dominate the land flora, and the Mesophytic began. The
Mesophytic gave way to the present Cenophytic in the very early
Cretaceous, with the first significant appearance of angiosperms.